


I'm Not a Loser

by steeleye



Series: Military Faith. [12]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Horror, action adventure, crossover fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-24 05:49:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10735419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: A Military Faith story; Buffy’s pregnant and someone is trying to kill or kidnap her. Chief Warrant Officer FaithLehane is assigned to do close protection detail, what could possibly go wrong?





	1. Chapter 1

I’m Not A Loser.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** Non-xover, however there are several references to ‘Ghost Whisperer’ and ‘True Lies’.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English (the original and best) which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** A ‘Faith in the Army’ story set after the events depicted in ‘A Walk on the Wild Side’.

 **Words:** 13 Chapters each of 2500+ words.

 **Warnings:** Look out for Black-clad Ninjas with guns!

 **Summary:** A Military Faith story; Buffy’s pregnant and someone is trying to kill or kidnap her. Chief Warrant Officer FaithLehane is assigned to do close protection detail, what could possibly go wrong?

0=0=0=0

_No, you don't want a boyfriend.  
What you want is Mr. Spock,  
To come to your wasteland,  
And destroy the robot.  
Something more than human,  
someone with blood that's cold and green.  
You want something better than me._

‘Mr Spock’: Nerf Herder.

0=0=0=0

The Prologue.

**The house that had once belonged to Xander Harris, Cleveland, May 2009.**

Sitting on an up turned packing crate, Xander stared at the legal documents in his hand without really seeing them. A tear rolled down his face and fell onto the paper smudging some of the neatly typed words making them hard to read. It didn’t matter whether the words were smudged or not, for all it’s legalise the documents held tightly in Xander’s hand said one thing and one thing only.

‘Xander Harris, you are royally screwed.’

His life had fallen apart so quickly he’d almost lost his breath at the speed at which everything had turned to crap. First his latest girlfriend had, with an inevitability that had grown tedious over the years, turned out to be a demon with some convoluted plan to get at Buffy through him. What the demon had hoped to achieve he didn’t know, he just wasn’t that important to Buffy’s life anymore.

“Buffy…” he sighed and smiled as he thought of happier times.

Of course Robin had sent a couple of Slayers to deal with his ‘ex’; two pretty, polite girls who looked at him with pitying eyes obviously asking themselves how he could have fallen so deeply in love with yet another monster. They’d killed the love of his life right there in the back yard, he’d watched from the kitchen window before going out and getting insanely drunk.

Then it had all been down hill from there; he’d started drinking…a lot. He’d lost interest in his work, he’d missed payments to the bank for the mortgage on his house. Eventually he stopped paying them anything as his business went under and he ran out of money. Finally the bank repossessed the house and tomorrow morning he needed to be out of it.

At first Robin had been considerate; he’d kept Xander on retainer work at the Cleveland Slayer House; this way he’d always had some money and a hot meal when he needed it. But the retainer was never enough to keep Xander’s head above water as he slipped further and further into insolvency. Eventually even Robin had realised that he was just enabling an addict and told Xander that unless he cleaned up his act he was no longer welcome at the Slayer House.

So that was it, his last connection with the world of slayers and monsters broken, how things had changed. In less than ten years he’d gone from a vital piece of the slayer organisation to useless, penniless drunk. A bark of bitter laughter escaped his lips as he thought about his one time friends. None of them had screwed up as badly as he had, even Faith was a success, now who’d have believed that back in good old Sunny’D’?

Buffy had married ‘Captain America’ and was now the pregnant, dutiful wife…Mrs ‘Colonel Riley Finn'. Willow was screwing Faith…that was just so wrong! Xander shook his head in disgust; Faith had tried to kill Willow f’christ’s sake! Now she was opening her legs for the slutty slayer on a nightly basis, it was disgusting. Giles, again Xander laughed bitterly; Giles his one good man-friend from Sunnydale had gone back to England, land of tea and crumpets, where he had all the little slayer girls dancing in attendance on him. Yes even Giles had a girlfriend, Xander screwed up his face as he tried to remember the woman’s name but couldn’t. Just what did it say about Xander Harris when even stuffy, oh-so-British Giles could get a hot, _completely human_ woman into bed with him and he couldn’t.

For several minutes, he just sat there trying to work out where his life had gone wrong. Had it been Willow’s fault for deserting him and going off with wolf-boy? What about Cordy who’d refused to let him apologise over that little mistake with Willow? Then of course there was Anya who couldn’t see that getting married would have been such a huge mistake for both of them.

No, it was none of them, or the seemingly endless stream of demon girls who’d arrived on the Hellmouth to ensnare him in their plans. He of course had fallen for every one of them. It hadn’t been his fault, they’d all been so attractive and willing to pander to his every need, he’d never seen through them until it was almost too late. Only then would a couple of slayers turn up to help him with the break up and with moping up the blood and demon goo afterwards.

So why was his life such a screw-up? Why was he sitting in an empty, dark house with one bag of clothes to his name before moving into a cheap motel? Suddenly it came to him, his life had started to turn to crap the day Buffy Summers had walked so seductively into his life only to rejected him. Now it became clear to him; Buffy had ruined his relationship with Willow. She’d always been there screwing with his mind every time he got a girl there’d always be three people in the relationship; Buffy had always been a the back of his mind. He sat on his crate for some time remembering every time Buffy had rejected him or worse, seemed like she’d liked him only to cast him aside the next time some cool looking vamp-guy swept into town.

“Bitch!” Xander snarled as he crushed the documents that he’d still been holding in his hand.

He’d make her pay…in fact he’d make them all pay everyone that had ever screwed with his life would regret it. Tossing the crumpled up paper to one side, Xander stumbled into his old bedroom and went over to one of the built in closets. Pulling the carpet to one side, he knelt down and opened a secret compartment in the floor, as he searched for something he’d almost forgotten about over the years. Reaching inside he brought forth a large leather bound tome and a small leather pouch. These were both souvenirs from his time in Africa…they’d all needed him then, so why didn’t they need him now?

The book was a book of ancient African magic written down by some Brit occultist in the 1850’s, it was rumoured to contain the original spell that had made the first slayer. He’d never been able to read the book himself as it’d been written in some sort of code. He’d meant to hand it over to Willow or Giles but somehow it’d always slipped his mind.

The pouch contained several tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of uncut diamonds. He laughed humourlessly as he poured the pebble-like stones into his palm. He had enough money there to live quite comfortably while he drank himself to death, but he could never sell the stones. These were illegal ‘blood diamonds’, originally dug up to finance any one of the myriad little wars going on in Africa, no reputable dealer would touch them.

Placing the stones back into their pouch, Xander smiled, he knew some disreputable dealers who’d touch them. While they couldn’t afford to buy them all they’d buy a few, it would give him enough money to live on while he organised the rest of the plan that was slowly forming in his mind. There were people from his old Sunnydale days who’d happily take payment in uncut, illegal diamonds for what he wanted them to do.

By the time he’d finished with her Buffy would come crawling to him on hands and knees begging him to let her be his slave. Smiling, Xander got to his feet and walked back into the living room where his rucksack lay. Stuffing the book and the diamonds in with his clothes he swung the bag up onto his shoulder. After taking one last look around the place he’d planned on spending the rest of his life, he headed towards the door. He started to whistle a jaunty tune as he walked down the street and never once looked back.

0=0=0=0

**The road between Fort Drum and Grandview, New York State, June 2009.**

The journey from Fort Drum, where Lt Colonel Riley Finn was stationed, was only a one hour drive from Grandview where Colonel and Mrs Finn had their new home. This was why Riley could get home most evenings and weekends (operations permitting). Since he’d lost his right leg below the knee back in Iraq (he’d been out chasing Hellhounds when his Humvee had driven over a mine) he’d been the commanding officer of the 613th Independent Ranger Battalion, the army’s anti-monster squad. This meant that he now rarely went out on operations and mostly worked a nine ‘til five life.

Knowing that she’d never make it back to Grandview without stopping, Buffy turned to Willow, who was driving the family SUV because Buffy couldn’t squeeze behind the wheel anymore and shifted uneasily in her seat.

“Willow,” Buffy cried apologetically, “we’re going to have to stop…soon.”

“Junior using your bladder as a trampoline again?” Willow glanced down at Buffy’s huge bump and scowled as if she could see the baby inside her friend, “I’m so going to embarrass you when you’re a teenager for treating your mom like this!”

“Willow?” the pained expression on Buffy’s face grew as the need to pee got stronger.

“Don’t worry,” Willow looked quickly at her friend to gauge how desperate she was; on a scale of one to ten, she guessed Buffy was on about an eleven. “There’s a gas station around the next bend.” 

Grinning to herself, Willow sighed; these days when she went out with Buffy she made a mental note of the location of every restroom they passed. Sure enough after negotiating the bend in the road, they saw the gas station nestled under the trees. Driving onto the forecourt, Willow parked the SUV as near to the gas station’s very own diner as she could; no doubt there’d be a restroom inside. As soon as she’d stopped, Willow heard Buffy’s door open, looking over at her friend she saw her struggling to get out of her seat. Opening her own door, Willow hurried ‘round to Buffy’s side to help her out.

“Darn-it,” Buffy complained as she took hold of Willow’s hands as she squeezed out of the SUV, “here I am slayer strength, scourge of the demon world and not able to get out of my own car without help!”

“You sure you’ve not got a football team in there?” Willow asked as she pulled Buffy out of the car (she half expected to hear a cock popping sound as Buffy came free).

“Oh please don’t make me laugh!” Buffy started to waddle towards the diner.

“No laughing!” Willow smiled as she saw her friend head for the diner, “I remember what happened last time!”

Still grinning, Willow turned back to the SUV as Buffy disappeared inside the restaurant; looking around the forecourt she noticed a black panel van pull in behind them. Not thinking too much about anything, other than perhaps how much fun it was going to be being ‘Auntie Willow’ to Buffy and Riley’s baby. She didn’t notice that the driver of the panel van made no move to get out of his vehicle to buy gas or do anything else other than just sit there.

Five minutes later Buffy reappeared and Willow helped her get back into her seat. Running ‘round the SUV again, Willow didn’t notice that the driver of the van had started his engine as soon as Buffy had become visible again. Starting the SUV’s own motor, Willow drove them back out onto the road and turned the vehicle towards Grandview once more.

“It’s so nice out here,” Willow commented as she drove them between the bright green spring trees that lined the roadside, “so nice and fresh an’ healthy, more colourful than California and way nicer than Cleveland.”

“But just as cold as Cleveland in the winter,” North-eastern winters had come as a shock to Buffy’s system. “But otherwise, yeah I like it here.”

“Still with the settling down?” Willow asked.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head, “why not? Husband now, baby on the way,” Buffy rubbed her tummy, “what more could a semi-retired slayer want?”

“As long as you don’t get bored,” Willow warned.

“Bored? Hey,” Buffy grinned, “as soon as this one’s out and walking I’ll be willing to do some light slaying before number two comes along, you know, stay in shape.”

“Whoa girl!” Willow laughed, “Not had the first one yet and you’re already planning on a little watcher or slayer for her?”

“How do you know it’s a girl?” Buffy asked, the sonograms had been oddly inconclusive and Buffy and Riley weren’t sure of the sex of their child.

“Hey look,” Willow said seriously, “I’m a witch I know stuff, okay? And apart from anything else, Summers women seem to produce daughters.”

“Well I want at least one boy so Riley has someone to take to ball games or however father’s bond with their sons.” Buffy pointed out.

“No reason he can’t take a daughter to a ball game,” Willow pointed out.

“Not the same thing, Will,” Buffy observed.

“Hey,” Willow glanced in the rear view mirror to see a black van come up behind them, “get close why don’t ya?”

“What’s wrong?” Buffy twisted in her seat to see the van right on their tail; it flashed its headlights at them.

“Okay, okay,” Willow muttered slightly annoyed at the other driver’s antics, “the road’s clear buster, if you wanna overtake, overtake already!”

Slowing down Willow pulled over to let the van go by; it roared passed them only to come to a screeching halt a few dozen yards ahead of them. Standing on the brakes, Willow brought the SUV to a halt before they hit the now stationary van.

“What the hell!” Willow already had her door open; she was going to give the van driver a piece of her mind, the piece that would turn him into a worm!

Just as Willow was stepping out onto the verge the van’s rear doors burst open as half a dozen figures dressed completely in black leapt from the van and started to run towards the SUV.

“What the heck!” Willow gasped as the figures got closer and she saw the guns in their hands.

Raising her hand, palm outwards, Willow sent the first two ninjas flying through the air. They hit the van with a loud bang and fell to the ground unconscious. Looking over to Buffy’s side of the SUV she saw a ninja tug open the door and reach inside. There was a startled yelp as a small fist connected with the ninja’s nose and spread it all over his face. The man clutched at his ruined face and staggered backwards leaving a trail of blood on the tarmac. For just a second Willow grinned, Buffy might be eight months pregnant and not able to move quite as fast as she once could; but she could still punch.

With three of their number down and out so quickly the remaining ninjas paused in their assault. Willow took advantage of their hesitation by muttering some Latin under her breath. Thick clouds of grey smoke billowed up from under the SUV as she climbed in behind the steering wheel and slammed her door shut.

“DOOR!” Willow yelled as she turned the ignition and the engine caught immediately; by now she’d lost sight of the commandos in the clouds of thick smoke that hung around the SUV, with any luck the ninjas would have lost track of the car too; you can’t attack what you can’t see.

After using the door to hit a ninja who’d decided to take another shot at grabbing hold of her, Buffy slammed the door shut as Willow put the SUV into drive. They sped off down the road leaving the smoke cloud behind them.

“You okay?” Willow asked as she floored the accelerator and hunched over the steering wheel like some sort of insane, maniac, driving demon.

“I’m fine,” Buffy called back, “but I think I broke a nail!”

“Phone,” Willow urged the SUV to go faster, obediently it complied.

“Phone?” Automatically Buffy started to search for her cellphone.

“They were human, Buffy,” Willow glanced in the rear view mirror and saw that there was no one following and eased up on the speed a little, “call the police.”

“Human?” Buffy turned in her seat to look back the way they’d come as her thumb automatically dialled nine-one-one, “Bastards,” she said as she raised the phone to her ear, “Sorry not you!” she apologised to the operator, “Police please, I’d like to report an attempted kidnapping.”

After receiving instructions from the operator, Buffy closed up her phone and looked at Willow.

“Why would anyone human want to kidnap you, Willow?” Buffy asked more than a little confused.

“Me?” Willow glanced at her friend, “You’re the pregnant wife of an important army officer and the longest surviving slayer…and you think they were after me?”

“Yeah,” admitted Buffy before thinking about this for a moment, “but when you put it like that though…” 

“You sure you’re okay?” Willow asked again as she frowned at her friend, “You didn’t bang your head or anything?”

“No I’m fine,” Buffy shook her head trying to clear it of her jumbled thoughts, “its being pregnant that does it, I can’t seem to think straight.”

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**The road between Fort Drum and Grandview.**

“Are you sure there’s no discomfort, Mrs Finn,” the paramedic shone a light in Buffy’s eyes as he spoke.

“No I’m fine,” Buffy glanced down at the medic’s name badge, “Jim, and the baby’s fine too, I’d know if it wasn’t.”

“You don’t know the sex?” Jim Clancy asked as he stopped shining lights in Buffy’s eyes and checked her pulse one last time.

“No,” Buffy smiled, the medic was quite handsome and if she hadn’t been happily married and eight months pregnant she might have asked him out. “The sonograms are never totally clear about that.”

“Odd,” the medic frowned as he let go of Buffy’s wrist.

“Funny, that’s what everyone says,” Buffy agreed.

“Well Mrs Finn,” Jim started to pack away his medical equipment, “you don’t appear to be any the worse for your adventure. But I’d check in with your doctor if I were you just to be sure.” Jim noticed Buffy’s face form into a frown, “Something wrong?”

“Sort of,” Buffy admitted, “my husband’s in the army and I’ve been sorta going to the clinic at Fort Drum, we’ve only recently moved to Grandview so I’ve not got a doctor around here yet.”

“That’s okay,” Jim smiled, “drop into Mercy Hospital for a check up, tell them Jim Clancy sent you, okay?”

“Thanks,” Buffy waved as the medic walked back towards his ambulance.

0=0=0=0

“So, Ms Rosenberg,” the patrolman had to glance down at his notebook to remind himself of Willow’s name, “You didn’t see any of these _ninja’s_ faces and you didn’t get a look at the van’s licence plate.”

“Sorry no,” Willow felt useless, try as she might she couldn’t remember any details about the van or the ninjas; it didn’t matter how often she ran over the events in her mind she just couldn’t remember anything useful.

“Are you sure this wasn’t some kind of a prank,” the officer asked as he put away his notebook and pen.

“Look officer,” Willow knew there wasn’t any point in being cross at the policeman, she realised what this must look like to him, “my friend is the wife of an officer in the US Army, he’s been to Iraq and everything. It’s not out of the realms of possibility that someone is trying to get to him through Buffy.”

Nodding his head Officer Conrad had to admit that the young woman had a point, just as he was about to say something his radio squawked at him. He listened carefully to the message before looking down at Willow again.

“Listen,” he said quietly, “that was one of my colleagues, they found what looks like blood on the road about were you say these ninjas stopped you but there’s no sign of any van.” Officer Conrad held up his hand to forestall any outburst from Willow. “I think what’d be best is for you to drive your friend home and call her husband as soon as possible. I’ll come along with you and check out the house, y’know just to be sure there’s no one there.”

“Thank-you officer,” Willow acknowledged.

0=0=0=0

**The Finn residence, Grandview.**

After their little adventure, Willow drove them back to Buffy’s house complete with a police escort. Once outside the house Willow and Buffy watched as Officer Conrad and his partner checked out the building to make sure there were no ninjas lying in wait. When the house proved to be free of any black clad kidnappers, the two police officers retreated to their car and took up position outside Buffy’s house. After thanking the police officers for their help, Willow helped Buffy into the house before calling Riley.

About half-an-hour later the police car drove away from in front of Buffy and Riley’s house just as half a dozen Humvees pulled up outside. They disgorged a swarm of troops who took up positions around the house. Only moments later Riley burst in through the front door knocking Willow flying as she went to open it.

“Sorry Willow,” Riley helped her up and Willow noticed the pistol in its holster on his hip, “where’s Buffy?”

“Upstairs, resting,” Willow replied as she dusted herself down and watched as Riley ran up the stairs; Willow couldn’t help thinking that for a man who only had one real leg he could move pretty fast when he wanted to. “She’s fine!” she called out after the fast moving soldier. “Oh well,” Willow told herself, “he’s just worried,” she turned to look at all the soldiers in the front yard and around the house before starting towards the kitchen, “Better start making sandwiches and coffee for the troops.”

0=0=0=0

“Buffy!” Riley stood in the doorway to their bedroom for a moment before crossing the room; he was by Buffy’s side in two steps, “Are you alright?” He laid his hand gently on her stomach as he kissed her on the lips, “The baby?”

“We’re both fine,” Buffy smiled up from the bed where she lay resting, she had the distinct feeling that she was dealing with this better than her husband was.

“Okay,” Riley started to calm down now he’d found that his wife and unborn child were unharmed, he wanted to know what had happened, “what sort of demons were they?”

“Not demons,” Buffy replied quietly, “humans.”

“Humans?” Riley was just about to ask a whole string of questions when Buffy put a finger across his lips silencing him for a moment.

“And before you ask;” Buffy began, “no, I didn’t recognise any of them and no, I’ve no idea why anyone would want to kidnap me…and what’s all that noise outside?”

“Nothing,” Riley looked away from his wife as he tried to get a handle on why anyone would try to kidnap Buffy; far too many scenarios popped into his mind, “I just brought a few of the guys along to help keep an eye on you.”

“You what!?” Buffy pushed herself up from her pillows and looked out of the window to see the road in front of her house full of military vehicles. “Oh-my-god Riley!”

“What’s wrong?” Kidnappers forgotten Riley turned to look at his wife.

“You’ve got the house surrounded by troops?” Buffy looked horrified, “What will the neighbours think?”

“The neighbours?” to say Riley was confused would be an understatement, “Who cares what the neighbours think?”

“I do!,” cried Buffy, “I have to live here, they’ll think I’m that awful Mrs Finn who gets her house surrounded by the army, that’s what they’ll think,” she wailed, “I’ll never live it down,” Buffy grabbed hold of her husband’s arm and looked him in the eye, “we’ll have to move!”

“But,” Riley did goldfish impressions for a moment before speaking again, “someone tried to kidnap you, remember?”

“But that’s no reason to stage the Normandy landings in our front yard,” Buffy snapped back angrily. 

“I think it is!” Riley replied with some feeling.

“Don’t you yell at me Riley Finn!” Buffy said sharply before catching herself and calming down, “Because…because I'm all pregnanty and delicate and over reacting to my husband’s perfectly legitimate concerns…sorry.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too,” Riley replied taking hold of Buffy’s hand, “I understand how you must feel.” He didn’t really but he thought it was the best thing to say, “But you need to be looked after until we find out what’s going on here.”

“But I don’t want the house full of troops, we’ve only just finished painting,” Buffy pouted.

“You do know the guys are house trained, don’t you?” Riley pointed out with a smile.

“Look, we’ll be perfectly safe with just you to guard us,” Buffy stroked her tummy as she spoke, “and we’ve got Willow here and…”

“Ah,” Riley said quietly.

“Ah?” Buffy repeated suspiciously.

“Look,” Riley edged out of range of Buffy’s fists; he didn’t think she was going to like what he was going to say. “The reason I brought all the guys was I’m not going to be around for a few days…fate of the world stuff you know?”

“Sometimes, Riley Finn, I think you love the world more than you do me,” Buffy sulked. “Never mind,” she brightened slightly, “I’ll just get in a couple of slayers to guard me while you’re off saving the world…oh!” Buffy remembered something, “Darn,” she sighed, “humans.”

“So,” Riley moved closer to his wife again, “you don’t want the place full up with troops, right?”

“Darn straight!” Buffy nodded emphatically, not that she had anything against Riley’s guys; it was the principle of the thing.

“But you can’t use slayers,” Riley pointed out as an idea surfaced in his mind.

“So what do we do?” Buffy said slowly, “And before you ask, moving back on post is not an option.”

“If I’d known you were going to be so stubborn,” Riley observed with a grin, “I’d never have married you.”

“That’s us Summers women,” agreed Buffy with another nod, “stubborn as mules.”

“Would one soldier be acceptable to your mulishness?” Riley smiled, he had, as the saying went, a cunning plan. “Sort of like a body guard?”

“Well,” Buffy thought about this, “if you’re not available to guard my body…which by-the-way I still think is pretty poor planning. I suppose one soldier wouldn’t be too bad…as long as he doesn’t go around stamping his feet and saluting me all the time and calling me ‘ma’am’.”

“I promise this soldier won’t call you ‘Ma’am’,” Riley reassured Buffy as he stood up, “now I better make some phone calls.”

“Then you’ll come back and see me?” Buffy asked urgently.

“Of course,” Riley got up and headed for the door, “I’ll make some calls then send the guys back to Drum. I’ll have them leave a Hummer so I can drive back tomorrow. Under the circumstances I think I can get away with staying one more night with my wife.”

“Goody!” Buffy grinned, “You know we can still make love, if we’re careful.”

“You sure?” Riley asked uncertainly, “You still want to?”

“If I didn’t I wouldn’t have said anything, but of course if you don’t want to…” Buffy left the implied threat of terrible consequences unsaid.

“Whatever,” Riley gave up, he knew he was going to lose, “I’ll be back later,” he called as he headed out into the hall.

0=0=0=0

Snuggling up to Riley, Buffy sighed contentedly.

“I always knew there was a use for slayer strength and agility other than for killing vamps,” she smiled into the night as she luxuriated in the feel of her husband’s body against her own. “Now what did you arrange when you were talking on the phone for so long,” she felt Riley’s body stiffen, but not in a fun way. “Riley,” she said warningly, “what have you done?”

“Look, Buffy,” Riley started to explain, “it was very difficult to find someone suitable and then get them released from their present duties.”

“And?” Buffy noticed that her husband seemed to be bending over backwards not to mention her prospective bodyguard’s sex, an ominous thought entered her mind.

“I’ve,” Riley steeled himself for Buffy’s reaction, “arranged to have Faith assigned as your bodyguard, she’ll be here tomorrow.”

“Faith!” Buffy was so shocked that she nearly lost the power of speech; killer, psycho, rogue, slayer Faith who’d…Buffy started to calm down as she began to think rationally.

“Look,” Riley continued hopefully, “it’s perfect, Willow’s already here, she’s already insisted that she’s staying until we know what’s going on, so Faith and Willow can share a room, what would look more normal?”

The evil, bitch, killer, Faith had long since gone and been replaced by decorated, soldier Faith who’d found Riley in the Iraqi desert, carried him on her back for five miles before turning around and wiping out the insurgents that had been following them. If it hadn’t been for Faith, Riley wouldn’t be here now and she wouldn’t be married and pregnant. Buffy was loath to admit it but she owed Faith a big debt of gratitude.

The world also owed Faith a vote of gratitude for saving it from a nuclear holocaust and alien big-game hunters and any number of nasty things that could have had so many really bad consequences. In fact, after a little thought, Buffy thought it would be an honour to have Faith come and guard her. Faith was famous, she was a war hero she’d had her picture in the papers…in fact it was just about at this point Buffy started to feel jealous of her one time rival.

“You’ll be okay with this?” Riley asked.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head slowly, “I think I can deal, but what if being near me all the time makes her start to remember stuff…like, you know, from before? 

“You think that’s a danger?” Riley was beginning to think that this might not be such a good idea after all.

“To be honest,” Buffy paused for a moment, “I don’t know, this’ll take some careful handling; you know Willow thinks there’s something blocking her memories? I don’t want anything to happen that might bring them to the surface,” Buffy sighed heavily, “I suppose I could get Willow to keep a little ‘forgetting’ spell handy just in case.”

“I can cancel this if you want?” Riley explained, “If you’re not happy with the idea, we can always think of something else.”

“Are you happy with the idea?” Buffy asked then answered her own question, “You must be happy with it or you wouldn’t have suggested it, right?”

“Faith Lehane is an honourable and highly motivated young woman,” Riley explained, “nothing like the Faith you told me about.”

“Okay then,” Buffy turned so she could see her husbands face, “bring her on, I’ll work something out.”

0=0=0=0

Outside the Finn residence one of the ghosts that seemed to haunt every corner of Grandview wandered aimlessly along the road. It stopped when it saw what looked like a black hole surrounded by blue flame open in the middle of the road. The ghost floated over to take a closer look; it saw three figures dressed in black step out of the hole; pause to look around and then climb over a fence into the garden of one of the street’s houses.

0=0=0=0

Lying on her back in her lonely bed Willow gave up trying to get to sleep. The events of the day had been so disturbing in so many ways. But looking on the bright side Faith would be here soon, she was out on some mission at the moment, nothing too dangerous and not too far away. The thought of her girlfriend made Willow frown a little; just lately Faith had been acting a little, distractedly? Like she’d something on her mind or she was coming to some sort of important decision. Perhaps, Willow hoped against hope, Faith was thinking about leaving the army. As Willow didn’t want to appear to be pushing her in any particular direction she’d not said anything one way or another, Faith would make up her own mind.

Sighing, Willow gave up any thoughts of getting any sleep just yet; she always had trouble sleeping in a strange bed without Faith to keep her company. Pushing back the covers she swung her legs out onto the floor, got up and put on her robe before heading down stairs to the kitchen. Perhaps if she had a soothing cup of herbal tea and read for awhile she’d get sleepy. Padding on silent feet that even a slayer wouldn’t hear, Willow made her way downstairs to the kitchen. Closing the door to the rest of the house she switched on the lights.

Turning she found herself coming face to face with three guys in black who where standing in a little cluster around the back door; they looked almost as surprised as Willow felt. One of them lifted a weapon, pointed it at Willow and fired. Bullets stitched a line of holes through the door and through the space where Willow had been a fraction of a second earlier. Cups and plates were smashed as wood splinters flew into the air from the door and its frame.

Lying on her side on the floor where she’d landed, Willow’s eyes went dark as she sent a stream of magical energy towards the gunman. The black clad commando firing the weapon screamed hideously as he was literally turned inside out by Willow’s magic. Panicking as one of their number was turned into a particularly bloody biology display the other two commandos started to fire. But it was too late, Willow had recovered from her earlier surprise and now had a magical shield in place between herself and the bullets.

Rounds ricocheted off the shield to bury themselves in the walls and ceilings, with one final effort (Willow found this sort of combat magic very tiring if she hadn’t had time to prepare herself) she sent a solid wall of magic at her assailants. The commandos were lifted off their feet and hurled into the wall of the kitchen, the force of the impact was enough to break their backs and fracture their skulls.

Sliding to the floor the two commandos lay dead in the blood from Willow’s first victim. When Riley got down stairs, pistol in hand and false leg roughly strapped on he found Willow breathing deeply and trying to calm herself down after using so much lethal magic on actual humans.

“It’s okay Willow,” Riley said calmingly, “you got them all.”

Limping across the room Riley checked that the commandos were in fact dead. As he stood up and before he could get back to Willow’s side, Buffy appeared through what remained of the door. Standing frozen in the doorway, Buffy looked around her mouth and eyes opened wide in shock.

“Oh, my lovely kitchen!” Buffy wailed just as Willow threw up on the floor.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**The Finn Residence, Grandview.**

“Where’s Xander when you need him?” Buffy asked herself softly as she surveyed her ruined kitchen.

Her eyes fell first on the large patch of hastily moped up blood on the floor by the backdoor before moving on to the bullet holes in the walls and cupboards. The bastards had shot up her best plates, she’d only had the chance to use them a couple of times, they’d been nice ones too, a wedding present from Riley’s Mom.

After the rather one sided battle between Willow and the mysterious commandos the house had quickly filled up with police, soldiers and ASID investigators. As it had been an attack on the home of a military officer the guys from ASID managed to convince the local cops that it was their jurisdiction. To be honest Buffy thought that Grandview PD was glad to be rid of the case, they just didn’t have the resources for this kind of investigation. This now meant that no one had to explain how one of the commandos had been turned inside out or how Willow had managed to break the necks of the other two; simply claiming, ‘they tripped and fell’, was not going to hack it.

At some point in the early hours Riley had more or less ordered Buffy to move on post up at Fort Drum where she could be properly guarded. Of course Buffy rejected the idea out of hand and then Riley had insisted. Voices had been raised and harsh words exchanged. Eventually Riley had stormed out of the house, but not before six of his Rangers had turned up to guard his wife and unborn child; he’d also arranged for workmen to come and start to repair everything. Even when annoyed at Buffy he always had her best interests at heart.

Yawning, Buffy shuffled across the battle scared kitchen and started looking for cups and mugs that hadn’t been shot. Luckily the kettle had escaped damage as had the teapot for the herbal tea Willow insisted she drink. After filling the kettle, putting the herbs in the tea pot and finding a couple of mugs that had escaped the firefight, Buffy went back to staring at the blood stain by the door. It would need cleaning up properly before it started to smell and attract flies, perhaps Willow could deal with that. 

Buffy looked down at her bump and stroked her tummy, “Hey Junior,” she said quietly to the child inside of her, “you’ll need to get used to this sort of stuff…” Buffy remembered something Willow had said months before, “…and didn’t your Auntie Willow say that Grandview was way down on the weirdness scale apart from all the ghosts?”

Buffy had to admit that she’d not noticed any ghosts or indeed anything else like vampires or demons. However, commandos with guns who shot up her kitchen more than made up for the lack of monsters. For a moment Buffy wondered why she was fixating on the damage to her kitchen as opposed to the fact that someone had broken in and tried to kill her best friend. True it was a very nice kitchen with floral patterned tiles, all sorts of labour saving devices, with working surfaces and cupboards just at the right height for her; but deep down she knew the reason.

“Because if I think about a dead Willow,” Buffy told herself, “I’d lose it…best to think about redecorating…” she pouted like a twelve year old, “…and it was such a nice kitchen.”

Jerked back to reality by the sound of the kettle whistling, Buffy poured the boiling water into the pot, stirred the herbs and then replaced the lid and waited for the tea to brew. Just then Willow came through what remained of the door.

“Oh,” Willow looked at Buffy as if she was surprised to see her, “you’re up, I thought…”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Buffy informed her friend with a shrug, “y’know, what with all the mayhem and gunfire.”

“Yeah sorry about that,” Willow shuffled over to sit on a kitchen stool that had somehow escaped damage.

“Not your fault, Will,” Buffy smiled supportively, “how do you feel?”

“How are you supposed to feel after killing three people?” Willow asked rather sharply, taking a deep breath she added, “Sorry I snapped.”

“That’s okay,” Buffy came to stand next to Willow and put and arm around her shoulder, “I know how you feel, it was self defence.”

Thinking about it Buffy realised that she didn’t know how Willow felt, she’d never murdered anyone before (at least that’s what she liked to tell herself) Willow had. Okay, Buffy told herself, she’d come real close to ‘murder’ once or twice, she’d even let people die. But Willow had killed for revenge so killing these commando guys must have knocked her back some.

“I once asked Faith about how she dealt with having to shoot and kill people,” Willow went on in a monotone.

“Okay,” Buffy started to pour the tea, “so, what did she say to that?”

“She said she had three rules,” Willow began.

“And these rules are?” Buffy handed Willow her mug of tea and smiled at the idea of Faith making up rules about killing people, a lack of rules had never seemed to have bothered her in the past.

“One,” Willow blew on her tea before taking a sip, “try to only shoot the bad guys.”

“That’s good sensible advice,” Buffy agreed with a nod.

“Two, try not to let it prey on your mind afterwards,” Willow continued, “and finally, don’t get to enjoy it,” Willow glanced at Buffy over the rim of her mug, “the killing I mean, Faith loves the army.”

“Yeah I get that,” Buffy nodded before adding, “wow, fancy Faith coming up with rules…”

“Buffy I think she knows!” Willow suddenly burst out.

“W-what?” Buffy blinked owlishly at her friend, “Faith? Knows what?” she put down her mug and tried to think what it was that Faith knew, “Look she must know all sorts of…”

“I think she knows that we’ve been lying to her about her past,” Willow explained, “She’s not stupid, Buffy, she thinks about this stuff and I think she’s found out something.”

“I know she’s not stupid,” Buffy pointed out, “I mean she actually got to finish her college course…okay, so she arrested the Dean and there were all those murders and she shot up that frat house and she had to change schools, but she finished and she passed, so yeah she’s not stupid.”

“And people say I babble,” Willow muttered darkly.

“So what do you think she’s found out?” Buffy wanted to know.

Faith’s past life coming back to haunt everyone had been a disaster waiting to happen ever since Willow and Faith had started their relationship. Before that everyone had agreed that not telling Faith she was a slayer and about her past would be the best for everyone. But then Faith and Willow had started to see each other…quite a lot of each other at it turned out. Then something more needed to be said; so Buffy, Riley and Willow had come up with the ‘super-soldier’ story. They told Faith that she was the product of illegal experiments carried out by Professor Walsh to create a super-soldier. This had satisfied Faith for a time but it still didn’t explain everything that had happened in her life, she was bound to start asking questions eventually and it looked like that time had come.

“She keeps asking about, you and me and Sunnydale,” Willow explained, “like how long we’d lived there and how long you and I’ve been friends…”

“Maybe she just wants to know more about your past, Will,” even as she said it Buffy didn’t really believe what she was saying.

“No it’s more than that,” Willow shook her head, the mug of tea in her hand forgotten, “the other day she asked if you’d ever been in trouble with the police.”

“I hope you told her…” Buffy’s face went pale as she remembered, “…Oh my god! Those two ‘almost arrested for murder’ things and…”

“And?” Willow looked at Buffy in horror, she knew about the times Buffy had nearly been arrested for murder, but was there something else?

“Erm…” Buffy hesitated, “…one night Faith and I broke into a sporting goods store and got arrested.”

“You what!?” Willow squeaked before demanding, “What happened?”

“As the cops were driving us back to the police HQ we knocked them unconscious and escaped,” Buffy admitted, “I’m sorry Will I should have said something but it sorta slipped my mind what with the mayor and the turning into a giant snake.”

“Oh my goddess!” Willow’s hand flew to her mouth as she realised what might have happened.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t tell her about Warren Meers,” Buffy asked hopefully so she could share the guilt around.

“Oh yeah I told her about him ages ago,” Willow replied off handedly, “she said it was understandable under the circumstances.”

“Under the circumstances?” Buffy asked incredulously.

“Whatever,” Willow shrugged, “look…y’know we went to New York to kill that demon that raped Faith?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded.

“There was this detective working at the SVU place, a guy called Munch,” Willow sipped her now cold tea, made a face and poured the rest of it down the sink. “He was one of these guys who’s always looking into conspiracies an’ such.”

“Oh, hold up there sister,” Buffy put down her own mug before continuing, “you think he found out something about Faith?”

“Yeah,” Willow nodded her head slowly, “or he found out something about all of us. Either way when I think back it was about then that Faith started to act all…weird, y’know?”

“Oh crap,” Buffy sighed; insane killer commandos apart, life for her was pretty good just now, she could do without a rogue slayer on the rampage, “Do you think Faith’ll…”

“No,” Willow shook her head firmly, “she’s older, more responsible, more grounded, she has a career that she loves she won’t do anything to jeopardise that.”

“So why don’t we just tell her the truth,” Buffy asked.

“BUFFY!” Willow screeched, “Are you stupid or has being pregnant addled your brains!?”

“W-what!?” Buffy was confused and just a little frightened, the last time she’d seen Willow anywhere near as angry as this was just before she tried to destroy the world.

“Tell her?” Willow gasped, “Tell Faith that she’d murdered someone?”

“ _Someones_ , actually,” Buffy pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter,” Willow continued without a pause, “do you have any idea what she’d do if she found out she’d murdered someone?”

“Keep it to herself?” Buffy suggested hopefully.

“Come on Buffy we’ve talked about this,” Willow was really worried now, “she’ll turn herself in, that’s who she is now and if she turns herself in you’re next on the list for a nice long stay in a women’s prison…”

“Oh god I forgot,” Buffy stumbled against the work surface as Willow grabbed hold of her arm to steady her, “I was there when she killed Finch, under Californian law I’m as guilty as she is.”

“And you haven’t got the excuse about amnesia for not handing yourself in,” Willow pointed out, “you’re also not a highly decorated war hero.” Willow looked deeply into Buffy eyes, “If Faith goes down, Buffy, you go down with her…”

“There’s got to be a better way,” Buffy whispered, all of a sudden destroyed kitchens didn’t seem so important any more.

0=0=0=0

“I think I might have thought of a way around this,” Willow announced; it was a little later in the morning and both women had showered and dressed, Willow had even cooked a light breakfast for them both.

“You have?” Buffy asked hopefully, “A way that means I won’t have to give birth in the prison hospital?”

“Don’t be silly Buffy,” Willow laughed, “the court case will go on long enough for you to have given birth before going to jail, you’ll just never get to see your child grow up!”

That was cruel, Willow knew but she needed Buffy on side for what was a pretty radical plan and guilt added to a little fear was as good a persuader as any. Yes she was being selfish, but she’d lost lovers before and she didn’t want to lose Faith. Also, if they’d all been a little nicer to Faith, cared about her more, maybe she wouldn’t have gone off the rails and joined the Mayor’s team.

“Okay Will,” Buffy whispered urgently, “as long as it doesn’t involve destroying the planet, what’s your plan?”

“So not going to destroy the world,” Willow laughed brittly, “been there almost done that…” Willow took a deep breath before asking, “…how does rewriting history work for you?”

“Huh?” Buffy frowned, “I thought you’d already tried that with the internet.”

“Yeah,” Willow admitted, “but I was stupid to think that would ever work, whatever I tried there’d always be something about Faith’s past on the web; take one thing down and another would pop up.”

“So what did you have in mind?” Buffy was really curious now.

“How about I _really_ rewrite history so none of this stuff has ever happened?” Willow suggested.

“You mean make everyone forget?” Buffy’s frown got deeper, she didn’t see how that could or would work.

“No,” Willow shook her head, “I was thinking something more than that.”

“Come on, Will, pregnant lady here I haven’t got the time to play guessing games,” Buffy sat back in her chair and waited for Willow to explain herself.

“What I was thinking was this;” Willow started to smile, “remember those monks who convinced the world that Dawn had always existed?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded slowly, she thought she could see where Willow was going with this.

“Look, those monks had no real power,” Willow started to explain her plan in detail, “they couldn’t hurt Glory, but Tara and I could and I even knocked her back by myself…”

“You were pissed at her for hurting Tara,” Buffy reminded her friend.

“Yeah, whatever, but I still knocked her back and you told me I was your big gun.”

Yes, Buffy nodded to herself as her own words came back to haunt her, she’d said that.

“Then I raised you from the dead,” Willow went on, “I called all the potentials and made them slayers…”

“And lets not forget the little end of the world thing you had going there for awhile, Will,” Buffy pointed out trying to keep Willow from floating away on her own idea, whatever that might be.

“Precisely,” Willow agreed unexpectedly, “if a bunch of lame know-nothing monks can recite a spell and bring a fully rounded person into existence and convince the world that she’d always existed. What do you think I could do?”

“Will,” Buffy began uncertainly, “I don’t think…”

“Look, you’re always telling me I’m the Mega-Witch, just before you ask me to magic open a jar of jelly for you,” Willow pointed out quite reasonably.

“Hey, Will some of the jar tops are pretty tight, even for a slayer,” Buffy reminded her, “but we’re talking of altering the perceptions of every person on the planet.”

“So,” Willow shrugged, “the monks managed it and they were…”

“Lame, yeah, right, I get it,” Buffy pondered the idea, “This would have to be some pretty major mojo, I don’t want you going all black haired and vainy.”

“That’s the beauty of it, it isn’t that powerful a spell,” Willow grinned, “The monks did it and made a new human at the same time. I’ve already got the body; all I have to change is how everyone sees the past.”

“Yeah okay I get that but…” Buffy frowned deeply as she thought about everything that could go wrong, “…look Will is there no other way?”

“Not that has such a high chance of success,” Willow shrugged.

“Ooooooh, crap,” Buffy struggled to her feet.

“What's wrong?” Willow asked concerned that her friend was going to veto her idea.

“Nothing,” Buffy headed for the door, “I just need to pee.”

0=0=0=0

Five minutes later, Buffy walked back into the room and sat down again, she looked across the dining room table at Willow.

“Look,” Buffy sighed long and hard before starting to speak, “assuming Faith is actually getting her memory back or has found out stuff its best she didn’t. Assuming you can do this without going insane and-or hurting anyone, I’ll go along with it,” Willow opened her mouth to speak but Buffy held up her hand to stop her, “But we can’t tell anyone else about it; not Riley and definitely not Giles, unless you think you can persuade him and I’d also like you to start looking for other ways of putting things right, promise?”

“Witch’s honour,” Willow held up her hand in a parody of a girl scout’s salute.

“So, what’s the new world going to be like?” Buffy asked.

“Well I can’t get rid of the frogs,” Willow shrugged sadly, “actually I don’t know if I can influence it much anyway, its one of the things I still need to look into.”

There was a knock on the door.

“That’ll be the workmen to start repairing the kitchen,” Buffy started to climb to her feet.

“Hey, pregnant lady,” Willow jumped up and started for the door, “I’ll get that.”

As she watched Willow go to let in the workmen, Buffy couldn’t help thinking life was simpler when Xander was always there to just repair stuff. For the first time in a very long time she wondered where he was and what he was doing. The realisation that she hadn’t seen Xander since he’d come to her wedding hit Buffy like an unexpected punch on the nose.

Of course there’d been Christmas and Birthday cards and e-mails, but she’d not seen her old friend in about three years! Of course she’d been busy what with getting married and her work with the army but… But that was no real excuse; Buffy eased her guilty conscience by remembering that Willow had been so wrapped up with her relationship with Faith that she’d not contacted her old friend as much as maybe she ought to have. Taking a deep breath Buffy promised herself that she’d call Xander either later today or first thing tomorrow.

Unfortunately the ‘need to pee’ and oversee the workman as they repaired her kitchen drove the idea from her mind within minutes of it appearing there.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**Outside the British Library, London.**

Blinking like a mole that had been caught in the sunlight, Giles stepped out on to the pavement and looked up and down the Euston Road. The busy traffic was in stark contrast to the quiet sub-basement of the British Library where he’d spent most of the day. Looking up at the sky, he saw that it was a pleasant early spring evening; turning to his left he started walking towards Kings Cross station where he could catch the tube for home.

Today he’d been studying Medieval manuscripts, the sort of manuscripts that were _never_ put on public display. He’d only been allowed to study them because he’d once worked at the British Museum and…well, because he was who he was. Even then the Head Librarian had been in two minds about giving him permission to study these particular manuscripts. They were kept in a special, lead lined, vault deep under the library proper behind thick armoured doors, along with other ‘dangerous’ documents. He hadn’t even been allowed to photograph them or make photocopies and all his notes had to be inspected by the head librarian before security would let him leave the building. The keeper’s of the British Library took their job seriously, _very seriously_.

Whatever the restrictions, Giles was well pleased with the work he’d done today. His briefcase bulged with handwritten notes and drawings; researching the documents he’d seen today would keep him busy for weeks. As he turned into Kings Cross station and headed for the tube station beneath it, a wistful smile crossed his face; research was about all he seemed to do these days. He missed the last minute scramble for information that would help his slayer destroy the latest evil to threaten the world. He missed Buffy; he missed all his ‘children’, but he missed Buffy most of all. Waiting on the platform for the Circle Line train, Giles made up his mind to go visit her as soon as he’d finished his latest project.

0=0=0=0

It was getting dark as Giles stepped out of the Docklands Light Railway station at Canary Warf, from the station to his flat was a mere ten minutes walk. He covered the distance at a brisk pace, the area was brightly lit and at this time of the evening still busy with office workers from the nearby Canary Warf office complex. He doubted there would be any vampires around so early but instincts sharpened by years spent living in Sunnydale told him not to dawdle, anyway he wanted to get home and start to study his notes.

Riding the lift to the sixth floor of his recently refurbished apartment block, Giles stepped out into the lobby and walked towards his flat, the door was opened before he’d managed to put his key in the lock.

“‘ello, Mr G,” the girl stepped out of the way so Giles could come in.

“Good evening, Rebecca,” Giles greeted his slayer as she took his briefcase from his hand and carried it into the living room for him, he was immediately suspicious.

“I’ve made your tea, it’s in the oven,” the girl called as Giles walked slowly down the short corridor and into the living room.

“Smells nice,” Giles studied the room for clues, Rebecca (nice girl though she was) was still a typical teenager and this wasn’t the sort of greeting he was used to.

His eyes focused on the girl herself; tight jeans, sparkly top that exposed her midriff and cleavage, the little earring-like thing she wore in her navel, his eyes settled on her shoes.

“Going dancing tonight?” Giles asked offhandedly.

“Damn-it, busted!” Rebecca let her shoulders slump.

“Don’t slouch,” Giles headed for the kitchen as Rebecca stood up straight and pulled back her shoulders.

Sighing, Giles really wished she wouldn’t do that, even if he did tell her to stand up straight; he might be her watcher, but he wasn’t a monk and Rebecca was a very attractive and well endowed young woman.

“What gave me away?” Rebecca called from the living room as Giles opened the oven door.

“Shoes,” Giles called back; he took an oven-glove and pulled the casserole dish from the oven, “you’re wearing heels, you usually wear trainers if you’re just going out on patrol…and those jeans are just a little too tight for fighting.”

“They’re stretchy ones,” Rebecca informed him as she appeared in the kitchen doorway, “after patrol I wanna meet some of the girls from college, Sarah’s having her eighteenth birthday bash tonight.”

Putting the casserole dish on the working surface Giles lifted the lip and sniffed appreciatively. There was definitely something to be said for having a slayer who was also training to be a chief.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Giles smiled.

“What?” Rebecca looked at him as if he’d suddenly turned purple, “You’re not going to argue an’ lecture me about my duty to humanity an’ such?"

“I can if you want me to,” Giles replied, “but, you going out for the evening fits in with my plans perfectly.”

“It does?” it was Rebecca’s turn to look suspicious, “You got your fancy woman coming ‘round, ain’t ya?”

“No,” Giles pursed his lips for a second thinking, that the chance would be a fine thing, “Olivia is not my ‘fancy woman’, I have work to do which won’t be helped by having a disgruntled teenage slayer clumping around the house.”

“I never ‘clump’,” Rebecca insisted, “and I’ve never been ‘gruntled’ let alone ‘disgruntled’.”

“Get on with you,” Giles smiled as he got down a plate from a cupboard, “don’t forget to patrol, don’t go to bed with any vampires,” Giles thought about this as Rebecca turned back into the living room heading for the front door, “in fact don’t go to bed with anyone, be careful and be back by one,” he shouted as he heard his slayer head for the door. “Otherwise within the limitations already set out, have fun.”

“See ya later, Mr G!” the door closed and Giles was left on his own.

0=0=0=0

After eating his dinner, doing the washing up and putting any left-overs in the fridge, Giles settled himself at his desk with a glass of wine and some soothing music on the CD player. Just as Pink Floyd ran to catch up with the sun, Giles unpacked his briefcase and started to sort through his notes.

Some time later while Ian Anderson was singing about how the mouse police never slept, Giles was a very worried man. He checked the notes he’d taken at the Library for the twentieth time and cursed the library authorities for their stupid and dangerous prohibition on making exact copies of the documents he’d been studying. The results were exactly the same as they’d been the previous nineteen times, as he knew they would be.

“This is preposterous,” he muttered to himself after drinking the last of his wine, “I must have made a mistake.” Looking at the papers on and around his desk, and checking several of his reference books, he knew he hadn’t, but he checked again for the twenty-first time. Once again, as he’d expected the results was exactly the same.

“Damn and blast them all,” Giles started to collect up his notes and put them in his briefcase, he then replaced all his reference books back onto their shelves, “Surely,” he told himself, “no one would be so stupid as to try this!”

Deep down, Giles knew the world was full of stupid, petty-minded people who thought the world had ‘done them wrong’ and who’d jump at the chance of the power he’d inadvertently discovered was on offer. He needed to get back to the library first thing in the morning, find out if anyone else had looked at those manuscripts, in say the last five years. Calling, Willow and every coven he knew would also be a good idea; he should also warn Buffy too.

Buffy! Giles stopped stock still as he thought about his old slayer.

“Oh god no!” he gasped as he emptied out his briefcase and started searching frantically through his notes again.

To hell with waiting until morning, he must get on a flight first thing and warn Buffy, this was too important to risk using the phone or e-mail, he had to see her in person. Picking up the page he’d been looking at he read it through again and again each time hoping it didn’t say what it said and each time he was disappointed. The dates given for the prophecy he’d found matched almost exactly with the estimated date for the birth of Buffy’s child. The doorway to any repository of such great power required a key to unlock it. He new of only one such key that would fit this door, The Slayer’s first born child. Giles almost had a heart attack when Rebecca burst into the room; her post party smile fading quickly as she saw the look on her watcher’s face.

“What’s wrong Mr G?” her voice was full of concern.

“I-I can’t explain now,” once again Giles collected up his papers and put them back in his briefcase.

“What’s wrong, Mr G,” Rebecca repeated as she crossed the room and placed her hand on Giles’ arm, “tell me, you’re frightening me,” she’d never seen her watcher’s face look so ashen before.

“I’m sorry,” Giles reached up and patted her hand where it rested on her arm, “but I can’t say, will you do me a favour?”

“Anything,” Rebecca nodded.

“Could you get on the computer and book be on the first flight to the States in the morning?” he asked trying to keep his voice from trembling.

“Where to?” Rebecca sat down and switched on the computer.

“Washington DC? New York would be better,” Giles closed up his briefcase after checking for any loose papers that might have escaped his grasp. “Anywhere in the North-eastern United States will do.”

“I’ll need your credit card,” Rebecca announced as she sat down at the computer and started to type.

“Here,” Giles handed over his card before heading off to his room.

Taking hold of the card Rebecca became exceedingly worried. The simple act of Giles just handing her his credit card like that, without all the usual warning about on-line shopping, frightened her more than any gang of vampires could. Taking a deep breath she turned to the computer screen and moved the mouse about until she found the site she wanted.

In his room Giles pulled his emergency bag from the bottom of the wardrobe and checked its contents. Removing anything that looked like a weapon, he cursed all terrorists to hell and back for making it too risky to carry weapons aboard commercial aircraft. Checking that his false passport was where it should be and the credit cards in the name of his false identity were in his wallet, Giles went back into the living room where he heard the printer buzzing away.

“Just printing out your documents,” Rebecca told him, “just take them to the BA desk at Heathrow. I’ve got you on the six-thirty flight to New York.”

“Thank-you Rebecca you’re an angel,” Giles glanced at his watch; it was late or very early, it depended how you looked at it; if he started out in the next hour or so he’d be in plenty of time to check in at Heathrow.

“What’s going on?” Rebecca demanded standing up and turning to face Giles, “You never panic and you never get frightened…”

“I can assure you, my dear, that you’re wrong on both counts,” Giles lifted his hand to forestall any comment that Rebecca was going to make. “Look,” he took a deep breath and tried to steady his nerves, “what I want you to do is pack a bag and go home to your mother’s house.”

“But…” Rebecca was about to explain how she thought that was a bad idea and how she’d be more useful going with him.

“I know what you’re going to say,” Giles told her, “and its very much appreciated but I need to know you’re safe or at least safer.”

“Okay,” Rebecca replied without any great conviction and wondered if she could follow her watcher without him noticing.

“When you get home phone the emergency numbers in your handbook,” Giles tried to think what was best but couldn’t decide on a cause of action other than the one he’d already come up with, “and tell whoever answers what I’ve done and tell them I’ll call as soon as I can.”

“Okay,” Rebecca hesitated a moment before she rushed across the room and held Giles in a tight hug, “Please take me with you,” she pleaded, “I can protect you, keep you safe from…”

The big picture window at the far end of the living room shattered at just that moment and Giles never got to hear what Rebecca was going to say. Instead, using her slayer strength and by dint of her superior slayer reactions, Rebecca managed to push Giles to the floor before the bullets hit her body. The roar of automatic gun fire filled the room as Rebecca’s arms flew up and the machine-gun bullets stitched their way across her torso.

Looking up from the floor, Giles saw his slayer do some macabre, slow motion dance as she was hit over and over again. The bullets leaving large, red, flower-like slashes of colour on her brightly coloured top. Foolishly he just lay there wondering how the hell this was happening, they were on the sixth floor for god’s sake! Finally the roar of gunfire abated letting Rebecca fall to the floor in a bloody heap. Crawling across the floor, Giles reached his slayer and cradled her head in his arms for a moment. He knew she was dead but he couldn’t go without biding her a final goodbye.

Laying her head gently down amongst the blood and broken glass he heard something land with a ‘thump’ behind him. Turning his head he saw the little, green pineapple lying on the floor nearby, he saw the thin trail of grey smoke leak from the grenade’s interior. As the fuse burnt down, Giles threw himself to the floor again and the grenade exploded spraying the room with sharp, lethal, shrapnel. Ears ringing and mind numbed, Giles forced himself to his feet and ran for the front door. Grabbing his bag he ran for his life expecting to feel the bullets that he knew would be following rip through his body at any moment.

By the time Ian Anderson was singing about the ‘Weathercock’ and asking it how it felt today, the only inhabitant of the flat was the body of Rebecca who lay in a pool of her own blood her eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling. Like all good slayers before her she’d died defending the ones she loved; and like all good slayers she had gone to that place where all good slayers go…eventually.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**The Finn residence, Grandview.**

Bringing her old jeep to a halt, Faith switched off the engine and looked up at the house where Colonel and Mrs Finn lived.

“Nice,” she whispered to herself as she wondered idly if Willow and herself could ever afford something so big.

This thought brought a frown to Faith’s face, where Willow and herself might end up living hung in the balance after what she’d found out recently. Back in May, Willow and herself had been on a mission in New York City. The mission had gone fine, they’d eliminated the demon they were after, but they’d been held by the police for several hours afterwards. During this time Faith had been questioned by a detective with the weird name of Munch.

The cop hadn’t got anything on her, he was asking about some break-in at a sports store in a place called Sunnydale. As Faith had no memories of her short stay in Sunnydale, she didn’t even know how she came to be in the town, she could truthfully tell the cop that she knew nothing about any break-in. However it was what the cop had shown her that had really knocked her back on her heels. This Munch guy had shown her a photo taken from some CCTV footage; the picture was grainy and slightly blurred but she could recognise herself and right there with her was Mrs Buffy Finn, of course then she’d been Buffy Summers.

Faith had always believed that the first time she’d met Buffy Summers was in Iraq in 2005. She also believed that the first time she’d met Willow was in Jeffersonville in ’07. But the photo made that a lie. It was obvious from that picture that Buffy and therefore Willow had known Faith back before she’d lost her memory. So, why were they keeping this fact secret? What was their motivation? Did Willow really love her or had she some other agenda, was this something to do with herself being a government science experiment that’d gone wrong? Had Willow been sent to keep watch on her? 

In the few weeks since New York, Faith had found out little that was new other than everything seemed to lead back to Sunnydale and something that happened before the year two-thousand. Sighing, Faith shook her head; now was not the time for doubts. There had been several attempts on Mrs Finn’s life; either that or they were botched attempts at kidnap. It also wasn’t out of the realms of possibility that ‘whoever’ was after Willow as well.

For all her recent doubts, Faith believed that Willow loved her; you couldn’t know or live with someone for two years without slipping up. Then there was Mrs Finn, she was a nice lady as well as being her C/O’s wife. Buffy Finn was one of these mysterious ‘Slayer’ women that sometimes worked with the army to take down monsters. Because she was a slayer and married to Colonel Finn, Faith’d been on a few training exercises with her; she was good but, Faith thought, not as good as her. The thing that held Mrs Finn back was she didn’t seem to have the killer instinct that Faith saw in herself and the other slayers she’d met. 

Whatever, Faith shrugged as she reached over the back of her seat and grabbed a holdall containing some of her clothes; pushing open the door of her jeep, she climbed out onto the sidewalk. For a moment she just stood there looking up at the house, the thought went through her mind that the walls wouldn’t stop rifle bullets. Checking the position of the M22 pistol on her hip, Faith moved around to the back of the jeep and opened the tailgate before removing another bag. This one was much bigger and heavier than the one holding her clothes, this one contained weapons and spare ammunition. With a bag in either had, she made her way up the garden path to the front door.

0=0=0=0

Just as she reached the front door it was pulled open by an overexcited witch.

“Faith sweetie!” Willow cried as she threw herself at Faith and gave her an enthusiastic hug in greeting.

“Hi Will,” Faith smiled as she dropped her bags and returned Willow’s hug; it was times like this that she was completely sure Willow really did love her, the affection that Willow gave her couldn’t be faked.

“Hi Faith,” Buffy called from behind Willow.

“Hi Mrs F,” Faith replied after disentangling herself from Willow.

Faith hadn’t seen Buffy in several months, their paths didn’t cross much anyway other than if they were on the same training exercise or they were attending the same army function. Obviously Mrs Finn hadn’t been on any exercises since she’d become pregnant; she’d also put on a few pregnancy pounds, her boobs were bigger and her face was slightly rounder. Her blonde hair seemed longer than Faith remembered it and her eyes appeared to be inspecting Faith with the same sort of intensity as Faith was inspecting her.

“Okay,” Faith said at last as she stepped into the house and Willow closed the door behind her, “Lets get this show on the road,” Buffy and Willow nodded expectantly, “from now on its first names only, okay?” 

“I’m good with that,” Buffy smiled, “I was worried you were gonna start calling me ‘Ma’am’ all the time.”

“Does that mean I can’t call you ‘Sweetie’ any more?” Willow gave Faith a look like a kicked puppy.

“Best not to, Will,” Faith replied quietly.

“Lets go through to the kitchen,” Buffy suggested, “I’ve got herb tea, ordinary tea, coffee, juice there’s even beer if you want.”

Faith glanced at her watch, “Little early for beer, don’t you think?”

“Erm,” Buffy realised it was still early afternoon, “yeah, sorry.”

“You’ll have to excuse her,” Willow explained as she led Faith through to the kitchen, “Buffy never was that bright and being pregnant has just made her worse.”

“Willow!” Buffy glared at her ‘friend’.

The kitchen still showed the signs of the short gun battle that had taken place the night before, Faith had been briefed on this and the attempt on Willow and Buffy the day before that. It was time to get down to business and set a few ground rules. Standing by the breakfast bar, Faith watched as Buffy heaved herself up onto a stool while Willow busied herself making tea and coffee.

“Okay,” Faith took a deep breath, if there were going to be arguments this would be where they’d start, “from this point onwards no one goes outside without checking with me first. No one leaves the house by themselves and Buffy doesn’t leave the building unless I’m with her, roger that so far?”

There were nods of agreement from both Buffy and Willow, Faith breathed a quiet sigh of relief perhaps this was going to be easier than she’d thought.

“Good,” Faith went on to her next point, “anyone here know how to shoot?”

Her question was met by silence and a slightly shocked look from Buffy, while Willow’s expression remained neutral. Taking another deep breath, Faith turned her gaze onto Buffy.

“I take it you don’t like firearms, am I right?” what the hell did she think her husband did, f’christ’s sake, Faith asked herself.

“Yeah, I don’t I’ve had some bad experiences with firearms,” Buffy said by way of explanation.

“Buffy was shot,” Willow added, “she was nearly killed.”

“Okay, I get that,” Faith leaned forward and rested her fists on the table; she looked into the eyes of each woman in turn. “But these assholes that are after Buffy use guns, so, we use guns if and when they try it again, better than being tortured, raped and killed, roger that so far?”

Swallowing hard, Buffy slowly nodded her head, Willow squeaked a quiet, ‘roger’.

“Cool,” Faith smiled as she stood up straight and accepted a mug of coffee off Willow. “Next thing, I’m warning you now; I’ll be hiding a number loaded pistols around the house…”

“But you can’t…” Buffy started to say.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Willow interrupted her.

“Only if you do something stupid,” Faith glared down at them, “and I _know_ no one here is going to do anything stupid, don’t I?”

This time both Buffy and Willow nodded their agreement.

“Good,” Faith smiled the type of smile that had turned the bowels of many a wrong-doer to water. “What I’m going to do is this, I’m going to hide some weapons around the house, if any of you find them, do _not_ touch them and f’christ’s sake _don’t_ move any of them, got that?”

Once again there were answering nods from around the table.

“So,” Faith smiled, this time with some hope that everyone might just realise how serious this situation was, “are there any weapons in the house?”

“Oh-oh!” Willow put her hand up like an excited schoolgirl, when Willow acted like this it always made Faith smile and love her just a little bit more.

“Yeah?” Faith quelled Willow’s obvious enthusiasm with a look.

“In the closet,” Willow got up and crossed the kitchen to open a closet.

Faith had sort of assumed that the closet would contain cleaning stuff or something. Walking up behind Willow she looked over her shoulder to see that the closet was actually full of swords, axes and crossbows. Typical slayer weapons, at least so she’d been told.

“No,” Faith sighed pityingly, “I meant _proper_ weapons.”

“B-but,” Buffy’s voice took on a slightly hurt tone, “those are my best weapons!”

“No, I meant firearms,” Faith clarified.

“Oh!” Buffy looked slightly embarrassed, “Riley has a lock box with some guns in his den.”

“Do ya have a key?” Faith wanted to know.

“No,” Buffy shook her head.

“Doesn’t matter,” Faith informed her, “but you can show me the room later, okay?”

“Okay,” Buffy nodded.

“Right, that’s all from me for now,” Faith informed them, “I’m going to check on my gear then walk the grounds and house, any questions, suggestions?” Faith didn’t give anyone any time to speak before saying, “Good!” and turning to leave the room.

0=0=0=0

“Is she always that bossy?” Buffy wanted to know when Faith had left the room.

“Hey Buff,” Willow looked at her friend pleadingly, “did you like read that stuff Riley gave you about her?”

“Not really,” admitted Buffy.

“Look,” Willow leaned across the breakfast bar towards Buffy, “Faith’s been in the army, for what, nine years now?” Willow noticed she’d got Buffy’s full attention, “They totally musta made her a Chief Warrant Officer for some reason…like she knows what she’s doing?”

“Spose so,” Buffy admitted grudgingly.

“…and all those medals,” Willow pointed out; she was incredibly proud of Faith and all her medals and the stuff she’d done over the years.

“Hey!” Buffy sounded slightly hurt, “I coulda _so_ won loads of medals, but there wasn’t anyone handing them out in Sunnydale.”

“Yeah I know,” Willow sympathised with her friend, “what I’m trying to say is; that was your stuff this is Faith’s. She’s dealt with these kinda situations before, cut her some slack, huh?”

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy didn’t sound totally convinced.

0=0=0=0

Up in the room she’d be sharing with Willow, Faith looked out of the window at the garden. There were no trees near her window but it would be an easy jump down to the ground. Not that she wanted to be jumping out of any windows with a pregnant Buffy in tow. Satisfied, she pulled her head back into the room, turned and picked up the heavy holdall that she’d brought up from down stairs and placed on the bed. Opening the bag she started to empty it; first out was her trusty AS2 assault shotgun and several ten round magazines and one of the bulky thirty round drum magazines. Next came an M4 and half a dozen spare magazines. Next, there were five 9mm Beretta pistols, each with two magazines. The bottom of the bag was lined with boxes of shells for all the weapons. There wouldn’t be enough, but what she had here would do until she called into Fort Drum and had them send down more ammunition and maybe some grenades. 

Buffy had plenty of good quality edged weapons in her closet in the kitchen, plus there were those crossbows, a silent weapon might come in handy. A thought suddenly hit Faith, she’d just taken up the bow herself. Like any other weapon that she touched she seemed to be an expert in its use, but with the bow there seemed to be something special, a connection between her and the weapon. Making a mental note, Faith decided to have her bow sent down with the rest of her extra gear.

Reaching into the bag one last time, Faith pulled another weapon out into the daylight; it was a .38 revolver with a one-and-a-half inch barrel. The .38 was a simple, reliable weapon that did what it promised to do and would put most human targets down, no fuss no muss. Smiling she loaded it and slipped in into the waist band of the cargo pants she was wearing. Next she walked out into the corridor outside and starting to prowl around the upstairs of the house. 

At the front of the house was Colonel and Mrs Finn’s bedroom with its en suite bathroom; the bedroom looked out over the street. Directly across the hall was an empty guest room; this had windows looking out on both the road and over the garage. This bedroom didn’t have an en suite bathroom.

Walking towards the rear of the house, Faith passed her own room, a separate bathroom and a couple of doors that lead to closets. There was a door just down from her and Willow’s room, which she opened to find a fully fitted out nursery with a window looking out over the back yard. Closing this door, Faith tried the last door, it was locked, probably Colonel Finn’s ‘den’; she’d need to see in there but it could wait.

Downstairs there was a large family room and dining room, the kitchen and a downstairs bathroom all of which led off the long hallway. Faith had to admit it, it was a nice place and probably expensive, she didn’t know anything about house prices but it looked pricey. Too rich for a Lt Colonel’s pay, so maybe Buffy had money…or the Colonel earned more than a normal Ranger Lt Colonel did.

Next Faith visited the garden; she found it a little overgrown but not enough to afford an attacker much cover. There was a tree with an old swing hanging from it and some over grown flower beds; obviously nothing much had been done to the garden for some time. Frowning she looked at the woods that bordered the rear and one side of the property. The house was situated at the end of a row of similar houses. There was a house to its left but on the right and to the rear there were deep dark woods that would cover the approach of any attacking force. Smiling, Faith wondered what Buffy would say if she told her she was setting up claymore mines to cover the woods; she’d probably give birth right there and then.

Laughing quietly to herself, a worrying thought hit Faith like a bucket of iced water. What if Buffy went into labour while they were under attack? Would Willow know what to do? Okay, Faith told herself, that was something else she’d need to find out. Sensing Willow walk quietly up behind her, Faith turned to greet her with a smile.

0=0=0=0

“I was just coming out to tell you that Buffy’s going to start cooking dinner soon so not to start any major projects.”

“Cool,” Faith smiled into Willow’s eyes, “here I wanna show you something,” she pulled the .38 from the waist band of her pants.

“Oh my!” Willow took a step away from Faith in surprise, “That’s a big one!”

“Not really,” Faith shrugged as she unloaded the pistol and held the weapon out to Willow, “here feel the weight.”

“Erm no Faith I don’t think…” Willow began but stopped when Faith started to explain.

“Look, ya gotta get over this ‘gun-fear’ you have,” Faith started reasonably, “while I’m guarding Buffy I won’t be able to watch out for you.”

“But I’m mega witch,” Willow explained, “I can look after myself.”

“Yeah,” Faith placed her hand on her hip and looked at Willow disbelievingly, “y’know Colonel Finn told me how bad you were cut up after killing those guys last night…I know you Willow, I know you hate using magic for that kinda stuff, I just wanna give you another option and hey,” Faith gave Willow a really bright smile, “you might enjoy y’self.”

“What shooting people?” Willow reluctantly took the revolver from Faith’s hand.

“No, dumb-ass,” Faith laughed, “you might get to enjoy target shooting or something, it’s something we could do together.”

“You still want us to do stuff together,” Willow replied uncertainly as she studied the revolver in her hand, “’cause since New York you’ve not been too keen.”

“Hey,” Faith shrugged non-committally, “I’ve had stuff on my mind…” she decided it was time to change the subject back to learning to shoot, “…come on Willow, let me show ya, you’ll probably never have to use it.”

“Oh okay,” Willow conceded, “as long as we’re both still good with each other.”

“We’re better than good,” Faith said as she stood behind Willow and put her into a correct shooting stance, “we’re five by five!”

Willow shivered a little at the phrase, just lately Faith had been using her old expression a lot more than she used to.

0=0=0=0

**Faith and Willow’s room later that night.**

Looking at herself in the bathroom mirror, Faith brushed her teeth and decided that the evening had gone better than she’d thought it would. After a little initial frostiness, the atmosphere had soon lightened as she’d started telling funny stories about her time in Iraq. Soon she’d had everyone laughing at the misadventures of Doublewide, Mrs B and herself. At one point she’d made Buffy laugh so hard that she’d had a little ‘accident’, which had just made everyone (including Buffy) laugh even harder. Eventually, everyone had gone to bed while Faith had gone to patrol the grounds and lock up the house.

When she walked back into the bedroom she was sharing with Willow, Faith found her lover was preoccupied with casting the bones and what they were telling her. Willow collected up the bones again and rolled them across the bed once more, she frowned at the result. 

“What-ya-doin’?” Faith knelt on the bed behind Willow so she was resting her chin on Willow’s shoulder and pressing her breasts into her back.

“I was getting fed up with not knowing what sex Buffy’s baby is gonna be,” Willow collected up the bones again, this time checking each one to see if it was damaged in some way. “So I thought I’d cast the bones and see if I could foretell the future, y’know like see the baby’s birth or something.” Willow tried to ignore the young woman who was at that moment playing with her nipples through her nightdress while nibbling on her ear lobes; Willow shivered with pleasure as Faith worked her lips down her neck. “But, these bones must be worn out or something.”

“Why?” Faith could tell she wasn’t going to distract Willow enough just yet to make her stop; she’d have to let her get this off her chest before she could get on it.

“Well according to these,” Willow finally put the bones to one side and turned to face Faith, “there isn’t a future.”

“Dumb-ass bones,” Faith kissed Willow on the end of her nose, “they must be broken like you say…lets fix them in the morning, huh?”

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

**Grandview Village Square.**

Standing by herself on the sidewalk, Willow watched as Faith drove Buffy to the local hospital. After all the excitement of being nearly kidnapped while driving from Fort Drum and people dying in the kitchen, Willow had insisted that Buffy take the paramedics advice and go for a check up. 

Turning away from the road Willow walked slowly across Grandview’s village square; coming to a halt next to the town’s war memorial, which stood right in the middle of the square, Willow found herself distracted from her thoughts of babies and masked killers. Frowning, she stood and looked around the square; she could feel something not quite right. People were going to and fro, between the neat little lawns and flowerbeds, but she couldn’t see anything that would make her feel so distracted.

“A sorta presence…” Willow told herself, “…of course!” she smiled at her own foolishness, all the ninjas trying to kill or capture everyone had made her overly suspicious, “it’s the ghosts, silly witch!”

Moving her hand slowly away from the comforting bulk of the revolver Faith had given her that morning; she’d not even realised she’d been going for the weapon. Thinking she must be getting jumpy because of everything that had happened she tried to relax. Next she felt a little ashamed of even carrying the gun. Okay she’d killed people in the past, she’d tried to destroy the world but she’d never used a gun…except when she’d tried to kill Kennedy. Giving a heavy sigh, Willow told herself not to be a hypocrite. It was like Faith kept telling her; guns were tools just like Willow’s spells. Use them sensibly and everything would be fine; use them foolishly, well you had to take the consequences. Feeling a little better about herself and carrying the revolver, Willow asked the goddess to reveal all that was hidden from her eyes. 

“Yikes!” Willow gave a startled cry which caused several people nearby to turn and look at her; she smiled apologetically before glancing skyward, “Very funny,” Willow told the goddess, “I can do without everyone walking around in the nude, thank-you, okay now you’ve had your fun, just let me see the ghosts, please.” A moment later everyone was properly clothed again and Willow could see the ghosts which were such a feature of Grandview.

There were several people in late nineteenth century dress walking around the square. A couple of Woodlands Indians sat in the middle of a lawn around a ghostly fire as they shared a long pipe. Looking down, Willow noticed a small boy go by with a hoop, there was even a cowboy, which made her frown a little; wasn’t he a little too far East? There were at least a couple of dozen ghosts in view from where she was standing.

“Hey!” Willow remembered not to cry out so loudly this time as she looked over to where a woman had just tripped and fallen. Her bags crashed to the ground spilling her shopping across the path. “Oh that was totally uncalled for!”

Willow walked towards where the woman had fallen; several people were already helping her to her feet. A black guy dressed in the style of the seventies had just tripped the woman up. 

“Hey you!” Willow called, heedless of the people who now turned to stare at her, “Yes you! I can see you!”

The ghost looked at Willow as if he’d seen a…well, a ghost, before starting to walk away.

“Hey!” Willow repeated as she made off after the ghost, “Don’t you go sneaking off, I want a word with you!” Willow caught up to the ghost and stood in front of him, “That was totally unnecessary,” she wagged her finger under the invisible nose of the ghost, “now get outta here and don’t come back coz if you do I’ll totally banish your ass, buster!”

Dusting off her hands, Willow turned to go about her business only then noticing the small crowd staring at her, she made a small frightened noise at the back of her throat and wilted under the bemused stares of the town’s people.

“Oh crap,” Willow sighed, “now everyone thinks I’m insane-o-woman, I’ll never live this down,” she added as she realised that as she lived here she might as well start adopting cats now, these people would never forget this. “Nothing to see here,” she called as she started to edge away from the curious crowd, “I just forgot to take my pills this morning, y’know?” Willow rolled her eyes at herself, “Great, now everyone thinks I have to be kept medicated.”

0=0=0=0

Standing by the door of her shop, Melinda Gordon had watched the red haired woman give the ghost a ‘damn good talking to’ and wondered what the hell was going on. Surely there couldn’t be someone else like her here in town, but the woman had definitely been talking to the ghost…no make that telling the ghost off. It hadn’t looked as if the redhead had given the ghost much of a chance to speak and the look of fear on the ghost’s face just before he vanished really sent the chills down her spine.

“Oh no,” Melinda whispered quietly, “not another evil to contend with?”

“What was that?” Delia, her friend and assistant called from across the shop.

“Nothing,” Melinda turned and smiled at the older woman as she walked back towards the shop counter.

“Are you okay?” Delia sounded slightly concerned.

“Why?” Melinda asked guiltily.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Delia came over to look into Melinda’s eyes as if trying to see what was wrong.

“No I’m fine,” Melinda smiled brightly as if to say ‘hey, look I’m fine’; I’ve just seen a woman yelling at a ghost, she told herself, of course I’m fine.

0=0=0=0

**Mercy Hospital, Grandview.**

“What’s with the army girl look?” Buffy asked as Faith drove her towards Mercy Hospital.

Dressed in the pair of cargo pants she’d been wearing the day before and a t-shirt that said ‘Army’ across the front, sand coloured boots and a camouflaged jacket; Faith did indeed look like she shopped at the army surplus store.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Faith glanced down at herself and shrugged, “I don’t actually have that many clothes with me.”

“Why not?” Buffy asked; she knew from Willow that Faith dressed quite nicely nowadays, apparently she’d given up the ‘slut-look’ some time ago.

“Look,” Faith signed as she drove up to the hospital, “I didn’t exactly have a lot of time to pack before I came here. I’ve got some outfits at Willow’s place but I’m here to tell ya now they ain’t the sorta clothes ya wanna be walking around smalls-ville in during daylight hours. Apart from these pants and a few t-shirts I ain’t got anything much to wear here, if ya see what I mean?”

“I see,” Buffy nodded, “when we’ve finished here I’ll take you shopping…”

“But…” Faith tried to explain some more but Buffy kept right on talking.

“…on me,” Buffy smiled, “I can’t have my bodyguard walking around like she shops at a thrift store.”

“We’re here,” Faith gestured at the hospital, “and thanks.”

“Yeah, well,” Buffy pushed open her door and started to struggle to get out of the SUV, “just thank your lucky stars it was me who noticed if…” Buffy paused; she had been about to say ‘Dawn’ but she’d not spoken to her sister since their final argument several years ago, “…whatever, you wouldn’t want to know…hey, can you give me a hand here, I think I’m stuck?”

“Yeah, sure!” Faith opened her door and jumped down onto the parking lot before running around the car to give Buffy a hand.

“Once upon a time,” Buffy said as Faith took hold of her hands, “I used to be able to jump in and out of this thing like…well like a very jumpy thing now I can hardly move.”

“Look, this isn’t working,” Faith pointed out, Buffy was still firmly stuck inside the SUV, “do you trust me?”

“What?” Now there was a question, Buffy told to herself, do I thrust Faith not to kill me, the answer came more easily than she would have imagined, “Yeah, of course.”

“Here, hold onto my arms,” Faith placed her hands under Buffy’s arms, “now hold tight.”

Lifting Buffy out of the car, Faith placed her gently on her feet again.

“Thanks,” Buffy smiled her gratitude, “that super-soldier strength comes in handy for more than protecting the nation, huh?”

“Yeah, sure does,” Faith forced a smile; still going with the ‘super-soldier’ story, huh? Faith asked herself; that story was too full of holes to be true, it didn’t explain half of what had happened in her life, but Buffy still seemed to be sticking with it.

Damn! Buffy thought, shouldn’t have mentioned the super-soldier gig; she’d caught the look Faith had given her. Perhaps Willow was right and Faith did know everyone was lying to her about her past. The question was, what would Faith do about it? Buffy doubted that Faith would do anything violent towards herself or Willow or anyone else, but…but she’d do something and that would be bound to cause heartache for someone.

“Reception?” Faith pointed at a sign.

“Yeah, silly me,” Buffy smiled and stepped over to stand next to Faith, she slipped her arm through Faith’s and pulled her close, “Hey, I need my strong, army buddy to make sure I don’t fall down or something, I’m such a klutz these days.”

“Yeah sure,” Faith said uncertainly, but she was quietly pleased that Buffy had called her, ‘her buddy’.

0=0=0=0

**Village Java, Grandview.**

Having lost the curious crowd that had been staring at her and after finishing her shopping, Willow crossed the square to the little town’s one and only coffee shop. Sitting down at a table in the warm spring sunshine she ordered a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin and tried to relax. Looking out across the square she sighed contentedly, Grandview was a really nice town. There were no monsters, the people were nice and if she hadn’t just made a complete fool of herself she’d be happy to spend the rest of her life here. As it was, now everyone thought she was one step up from the bag lady who muttered to herself as she shuffled along the sidewalk, she’d have to leave and live in New York. Failing that somewhere where people wouldn’t notice another crazy woman. Oh, she reminded herself, she couldn’t go back to New York, that SVU Captain had warned her and Faith to stay away from the city.

Distracted by a Revolutionary War soldier who was walking by the coffee shop, Willow didn’t really notice the bus until it had disgorged its passengers and driven away. A sense of something or someone familiar came to her. Looking across the square she saw a figure looking around himself in that lost, sorta vague way she had grown to know so well over the years.

“GILES!” Willow stood up and shouted, this caused every town’s person nearby to turn and look at her again, she was really making a name for herself today, in all the wrong ways.

For his part, Giles looked around until he caught sight of the insane redhead who was jumping up and down and waving outside the local coffee shop. Picking up his bags he hurried over to Willow almost being knocked down by a farmer’s pick-up truck as he crossed the road.

“Willow!” Giles smiled with relief as he came up to her, “Thank god you came to meet me, how did you know I’d be arriving now?”

“I didn’t,” Willow explained as she threw her arms around the tired watcher’s neck and gave him a really good hugging. “I just happened to be in town doing some shopping,” Willow left out the part about convincing the inhabitants of Grandview that she was totally insane, “What are you doing here?” Willow wanted to know as she gestured for Giles to sit next to her, “I didn’t know you were coming over.”

“You didn’t?” Giles looked even more worried than he had, “No one called you?”

“What’s up Giles?” Willow scowled.

“Can we talk?” Giles eyed the people around them suspiciously.

“Sure we can,” Willow gestured and a cloak of secrecy came down around them; anyone listening in to their conversation would now just hear two old friends talking as they caught up on old news.

“What’s up?” Willow asked quietly.

0=0=0=0

**Mercy Hospital, Grandview.**

Standing in the corner of the examination room, Faith watched the doctor do all his tests. Faith’d never even considered having children, the army was her life now and she couldn’t see how kids and a family would fit in. Anyway, from what she was seeing Buffy go through, being pushed and prodded, it all seemed like too much fuss and then there was all the pain and bloating and stretch marks and…

Shaking her head to clear it of nightmare visions of childbirth, Faith watched as the doctor took the blood pressure cuff from Buffy’s arm. The doctor then asked Buffy a whole stream of personnel sounding questions and Faith found her eyes drifting up towards the ceiling. Noticing little motes of dust float down from the ceiling tiles, Faith grimaced as her ‘ambush cramps’ started to take hold of her stomach, this had often happened in Iraq just before the insurgents sprung an ambush on her and her squad.

Reaching under her jacket, Faith started to pull the pistol from the holster on her hip, just as the first ceiling tile fell to the floor with a crash. Buffy screamed with surprise and the doctor shouted angrily as a pair of black clad legs appeared out of the hole in the ceiling. Faith’s gun was now free of its holster and she was bringing it to bear on the intruder. Centring her sights on the intruder’s chest, Faith’s eyes took in the gun he held in one hand and what looked like a taser held in the other.

The ninja guy was dressed in black from head to foot with only his eyes showing through his ski-mask; Faith shot him twice in the chest without further hesitation. Down went the ninja as the doctor threw himself across Buffy in an effort to protect her. Swinging to point her weapon at another ceiling tile that was just starting to fall to the floor, Faith saw a second ninja jump down into the room. Faith shot this man once in the forehead and once in the centre of his chest. The man fell against the wall knocking expensive hospital equipment over onto the floor and staining the wall with his blood.

Distracted for a second, Faith didn’t notice the third ninja until he’d jumped down through the first hole and advanced on Buffy taser held ready. Turning, Faith was just in time to see Buffy hit the ninja on the end of his nose with the palm of her hand. The ninja cried out in pain and alarm as he staggered back from his intended victim. Moving to her right a couple of steps to clear Buffy from her line of fire, Faith shot the ninja twice in the head. Pointing her pistol up at the holes in the ceiling, she moved to stand next to where Buffy still sat on the exam couch.

“You okay,” Faith asked not relaxing for a moment.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded looking around at all the death and destruction, “you?”

“Don’t sweat it,” Faith glanced away from the holes in the ceiling and looked down at Buffy; she still had her dress up around her waist and her legs wide apart showing way more than Faith wanted to see. “Neat move there.”

“Thanks,” Buffy grinned at Faith, “and thanks for saving my life.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Faith repeated as if she did this sort of stuff everyday; just then two police officers burst into the room pointing there pistols at everyone.

“OH!” Squeaked Buffy as she tried to cover herself up, “Way too many people!”

0=0=0=0

**Village Java, Grandview.**

“Oh my god Giles,” Willow gasped in horror after Giles had explained what had happened to him in the last twenty-four hours, “and your poor slayer, that’s awful,” Willow was close to tears at the thought of the girl trying to save Giles and getting killed, plus there was the little business of someone trying to kill Giles, one of her oldest friends.

“This is terrible,” Willow continued, her voice petered out as a pattern started to form in her mind, she turned a steely stare on Giles, “As far as you know have any other members of the council or any other slayers been targeted?”

“Erm no, not that I know of,” Giles explained as he watched Willow closely, “What are you thinking Willow?”

“I’m thinking that this is personnel,” Willow explained, “I’m thinking that its only people from Sunnydale who’re being targeted…”

“But Rebecca…” Giles began.

“Collateral damage,” Willow pointed out, she pinned Giles with her resolve face as he nervously polished his glasses, “so far there have been attempts on Buffy and me, Xander can’t be found,” Willow explained to Giles’ puzzled look, “Robin said he’d disappeared a few weeks ago no one’s seen him since; now there’s been an attempt on your life…OH MY GOD!”

“W-what’s wrong?” Giles looked around expecting to see masked killers making their way across the square towards them.

“Faith…Riley!” Willow gasped.

“What about them?” seeing no killers, Giles focused his attention back on Willow.

“What if someone’s after them too?” Willow explained, “What if this is nothing to do with _what_ we are but _who_ we are?”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Giles watched confused as Willow started to stand up.

His brain wasn’t working with its usual clarity; what with no sleep in the last twenty-four hours and people trying to kill him.

“Come on we’ve got to find Buffy and Faith,” Willow gabbed Giles’ arm and pulled him to his feet, “lets move!”

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

**Mercy Hospital, Grandview.**

“Where’s Faith?” Buffy demanded; she’d been sitting in the lounge with the two detectives for about half an hour and it was really beginning to annoy her.

“Ms Lehane is answering a few questions…” Detective Ford replied in an irritatingly calm voice.

“Why?” Buffy snapped before Ford could complete his sentence.

“Mrs Finn,” the detective sighed heavily and glanced at the uniformed officer guarding the door, “you can’t have shoot outs in a hospital without a few questions being asked, now…”

“It was hardly a shoot out,” Buffy pointed out.

“What?” Detective Ford massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger; he could feel a migraine coming on.

“Look,” Buffy explain patiently, “a ‘shoot out’, as you call it, implies a certain amount of shooting back and forth?”

“Yes and…” Detective Ford wanted to recover control of the interview from the little blonde but she wouldn’t let him.

“But there wasn’t any,” Buffy’s back was starting to hurt, the chairs were too low and too soft and this idiot detective kept asking her stupid questions, “look; they came through the ceiling and Faith shot them, end of story.” 

Wishing longingly for the days of ‘gangs on PCP’, Buffy could see, by the look on the detective’s face she wasn’t going to get home anytime soon. This guy was actually trying to do his job, this wasn’t like dealing with the Sunnydale PD cops, this guy wanted the truth. It was time to change tactics.

“Do you know of any reason why anyone would want to try and kidnap you Mrs Finn?” Detective Ford asked.

“No,” Buffy replied making her voice a little softer, “unless they’re trying to get to my husband by hurting me and the baby,” Buffy sniffed and stroked her belly.

“Where’s your husband now?” Ford wanted to know; if his pregnant wife had been attacked he’d be right there by her side demanding answers.

“On operations,” Buffy sniffed again and dabbed at her eyes with a screwed up tissue.

“Operations?” Ford remembered something; Mrs Finn’s husband was in the army.

“Yes,” Buffy sobbed loudly as she wiped away the tears that rolled down her cheeks, “it’s secret, you know?”

Ford nodded sympathetically.

“After the first attempt and because Riley couldn’t be here,” Buffy explained tearfully, “the army sent Faith to look out for me.”

“I see,” Ford nodded his head, “okay, Mrs Finn I think that about covers it for now. I’ll have a car take you home…”

“Not without Faith!” suddenly the weeping, pregnant woman was gone and some thing much more belligerent reappeared and made him start back with surprise, “Of-of course ma’am.”

“Thank-you Detective,” in an instant the little, harmless, blonde woman was back again smiling at him through tear blurred eyes.

“Right ma’am,” Ford stood up and headed for the door, “I’ll deal with that now.”

0=0=0=0

“Shoot a lot of people in your line of work, Lehane?”

Faith had decided, some time ago, that she didn’t like Detective Jackson; he was fat, balding, smelly and a complete jerk. Detective Lincoln on the other hand, was young, fit and cute. In other circumstances she’d be asking him if he’d like to go out with her, but she hadn’t, it would’ve upset Willow.

“Not so much,” Faith replied with a sigh, “you do know I’m a cop, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Jackson laughed unpleasantly, “an MP, y’know you can’t spell ‘whimp’ without the em and pee?”

There was always one, Faith knew she shouldn’t but she couldn’t help herself, that ‘joke’ really ticked her off. Moving so quickly the detective didn’t have a chance to react; Faith took hold of Jackson’s tie and pulled; she jerked his head down so his forehead hit the surface of the metal table they were sitting at.

“OW!” Jackson put one hand to his forehead while the other started to go for his gun.

“You deserved that, Dan,” Detective Lincoln said from the other side of the room, “now get lost while I talk to Ms Lehane.”

With an ill will and still rubbing his forehead, Jackson got up and left the room.

“Sorry about that, Ms Lehane…”

“Call me Faith, Miss Lehane, Special Agent or Chief,” Faith hadn’t realised she’d got so many names, “I hate this ‘Miz’ crap,” she smiled invitingly at the detective, “you can call me Faith if you like.”

“Okay, Miss Lehane,” Lincoln sat down and glanced at his note book, “just tell me what happened.”

“Okay detective I’ll tell you what I know; three ninja dudes came through the ceiling. They had guns and tasers, I had reason to suspect that they wanted to either kill or kidnap Buffy, that’s Colonel Finn’s wife, so I shot the bastards. I don’t know who they were but I suspect they’re from the same bunch of ninjas who tried to kill or kidnap Mrs Finn and her friend Miss Rosenberg the other day.”

“Yeah,” Lincoln nodded his head as he finished writing in his notebook, “we thought that too.” The detective looked at Faith giving her that ‘one cop to another’ look that she’d used herself on occasion. “I don’t suppose you can tell me what all this is about? I mean ninjas in Grandview, come on?”

“Sorry Detective,” Faith shrugged, “even if I knew I probably couldn’t tell ya,” she gave the man a sympathetic smile, “I’m just a lowly Grunt, they don’t tell me squat. I’ve been told to protect Mrs Finn from all comers, until they tell me something different I’ll keep doing it the best I can.”

“Even if it kills you?” Lincoln asked quietly; it was his opinion that Faith Lehane was anything but a, ‘lowly Grunt’.

“Yeah,” Faith admitted with another shrug, “that’s what I do and hey, Mrs Finn is a nice lady, so I’d help out even if I’d not been told to, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Lincoln stood up, “I think that’s about all Miss Lehane…Faith, Mrs Finn is waiting outside. I’ll have a car to take you both home. You know what you did was pretty brave?”

“Nah,” Faith shook her head, “not me, that was nothing, but I’ll tell you who was.”

Lincoln raised an eyebrow inviting Faith to keep talking.

“The Doc who was checking Mrs F out,” Faith nodded in admiration, “he shielded Mrs F with his body, didn’t even hesitate…now that’s what _I_ call brave.”

0=0=0=0

**Mercy Hospital, Grandview.**

“FAITH!” Buffy rushed over to Faith surprisingly quickly for such a heavily pregnant woman and wrapped her arms around Faith’s neck and gave her a relieved hug. “You okay?” she demanded, “They didn’t give you the third degree or anything?”

“I’m fine,” Faith laughed as she returned Buffy’s embrace, “I had to slap one of Grandview’s finest down a little but otherwise I’m five by five…you?”

“I’m good,” Buffy let go of Faith and stepped back a pace as if to check that Faith wasn’t lying and she was in fact okay, “but the chairs here are too low and soft so now my back aches.”

“Come on, they said something about a car to take us home,” Faith started to lead Buffy towards the exit, “If you like I can give you a back rub when we get home.”

“You do back rubs too!” Buffy stopped to stare at Faith in admiration.

“Yeah I do back rubs,” Faith explained with a smile, “Willow says I’m pretty good at ‘em too.”

“If you were a guy,” Buffy sighed, “and I wasn’t already married I’d marry you…but then if I wasn’t married,” Buffy’s eyebrows came down in a frown, “I wouldn’t be pregnant so I wouldn’t need a back rub.”

“Everyone needs back-rubs,” Faith shrugged to herself and wondered what Colonel Finn had seen in the ditzy blonde that Buffy appeared to be. 

Okay she was real cute and obviously loved her husband, but she was a real cheerleader type and Finn seemed to have his head on straight…for an officer. Obviously it must have been all the shared danger in Sunnydale. The thought of Sunnydale brought back the memory that Buffy was in fact hiding something about her own past. Just for a moment, not even a moment really, Faith felt bitter about Buffy not telling her about their involvement in Sunnydale. But you couldn’t keep bitter for long at a woman who’d wet herself from laughing too hard at your funny stories. Also if she was going to be bitter about Buffy not talking; that meant that she’d have to be ‘bitter’ at Willow and that was one thing she just didn’t want to be.

No, Faith thought as she walked Buffy out to the waiting police car (she’d have to come back later for the SUV), finding out about what they’d all done in Sunnydale could wait until Buffy was safe. But, she would find out about her past, Faith promised herself that, whatever it took she’d find the truth.

0=0=0=0

**The Finn Residence, that evening.**

“…and so to recap,” Giles announced as they all sat around in Buffy’s living room.

After recovering from the excitement of the day, Faith, Buffy, Willow and Giles had all sat down and let Giles tell his part of the story, it really did look as if someone was out to kill all of them.

“…Buffy and Willow got attacked on the road between Fort Drum and Grandview…”

Faith listened intently to Giles’ voice, he sounded like one of the British officers she’d met while she’d been out in Iraq; he struck her as the sort of guy who’d be real polite even as he killed you. Then there were the looks he kept giving her, sort of as if he didn’t know whether she was going to kill him or something. This Rupert Giles (hey, he even had the same Christian name as a Brit officer!) had been Buffy’s ‘Watcher’ like forever, so he must have been in Sunnydale at the same time as the picture showing herself and Buffy in that sports store had been taken. So, Rupert Giles must know something about her past too. Why was it, Faith asked herself, that these people knew more about two thirds of her life than she did? That would have to change.

“…and last night, Willow got attacked in Buffy’s kitchen,” Giles continued.

“And really messed it up!” Buffy interrupted before glancing at Willow, “Not your fault Will.”

“Indeed,” Giles looked at Buffy over the tops of his glasses, “Finally today, Miss Lehane…I mean Faith, thwarts another attempt at kidnapping Buffy…”

“I think they would’a killed her,” Faith pointed out, she looked at all the faces that had been turned towards her, “look, those guys had tasers and guns. I think if I’d not been there and if Buffy had put up too much of a fight, I think they’d have killed her.”

“Oh my…” gasped Willow.

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Miss Lahane’s assessment,” Giles added.

“Why me?” Buffy wailed.

“Erm Buffy,” Giles began to explain, “you’re not exactly popular in some circles, I’m surprised someone hasn’t tried this before.”

“He’s right,” Willow agreed as she turned to look at Buffy, “over the years you’ve really pissed a lot of people off.”

“Can I help it I’m good at my job?” Buffy complained, “And talking about jobs,” Buffy started to try a lever herself out of her chair, “I better start on the dinner, I mean we can’t fight the forces of darkness on empty stomachs…could someone help me up?”

“Here,” Faith jumped to her feet and clasped hands with Buffy before hauling her to her feet.

“You want any help?” Willow asked as she started to get up herself.

“No, I’m fine,” Buffy reassured her.

“Hey, I’m gonna walk the grounds,” Faith pulled a pistol from under her t-shirt, “when I’ve finished up I’ll give Buffy a hand if she needs it.”

“Thanks,” Willow watched as Buffy and Faith headed for the kitchen; if the truth were told she’d wanted to get Giles by himself for a few minutes.

“Willow,” Giles said urgently once Faith and Buffy had left the room, “I need to talk to you about something I found in London.”

0=0=0=0

**Big Bad’s Lair, near Grandview.**

“YOU FAILED?” Amy Madison looked down at General Chestikoff and watched the man wilt under her gaze, “Just how many men does it take to capture one, pregnant slayer?” sarcasm dripped from her lips as she spoke and the man in front of her fidgeted uncomfortably. “Are you naturally incompetent or do you have to practice?”

“But Your Holiness,” pleaded the man, “she had a bodyguard.”

“A bodyguard?” Amy pierced the man with a look that had him writhing in renewed embarrassment, “Unless you tell be that this ‘bodyguard’ was some ravening monster from the very pit of hell I will not be pleased…” Amy let the silence between them stretch, “…well?”

“It was another slayer, Your Holiness,” the man was almost grovelling on his knees now.

“Another slayer?” Amy asked intrigued.

“Yes, Your Holiness,” the general pushed himself back to his feet and tried to regain some of his dignity, “only a slayer would be fast enough to gun down three of your finest assassins.” 

“A slayer with a gun?” Amy asked; the man nodded, “Unusual,” she mused and then looked again at her general, “you may withdraw, but stay close, as unlikely as it sounds I may need you again.”

“Yes, Your Holiness,” the general bowed and started to back out of the room, “of course, Your Holiness.”

The general bumped into the motel room door, panicked, fumbled with the door handle for a moment before dragging it open and hurrying from Amy’s presence the door slamming shut behind him as he left.

“I’m surrounded by fools and idiots,” Amy muttered; but what did she expect; you had to work with what tools you had and the Knights of Byzantium were the biggest bunch of ‘tools’ on the planet.

After the débâcle of being defeated by Buffy’s little band of whipped vampires, lesbians, high school jerks and middle aged librarians, the Knights of Byzantium had sort of lost all credibility. Then when team-Buffy had defeated Glory they’d lost their reason to exist, they became prime targets for a hostile take over, and she had been just the ‘hostile’ girl to do the taking over. After leaving Sunnydale, Amy had drifted around the United States and Europe making a living from using her witchy powers for profit and fun. It was while she’d been on holiday in Greece (ripping off some Greek shipping mogul who thought she was in love with him) that she happened to come across the remnants of the Knights of Byzantium.

After she’d convinced the dopes that she’d been sent by ‘God’ (a few minor ‘miracles’, that she hadn’t even worked up a sweat over, had convinced them of that) they’d soon accepted her as ‘Saint Amy of Madison’. Telling them she’d been sent by god to sweep evil from the world, Amy took over. Of course now the ‘evil doers’ were anyone she told the knights they were. Amy decided just how bad these ‘evil doers’ were by counting up how much money people were willing to pay her to get ride of them.

You wanted a political opponent assassinated, or perhaps a small special forces unit to destroy a neighbouring country’s new damn or power station. Maybe you’d like some really good soldiers to train your army or lead them in battle; who did you call? The Knights of Byzantium of course.

Within days of taking over, Amy had swept away the old ways. Gone were the swords and crossbows; in came the automatic weapons, car bombs and sniper rifles. It had all been so depressingly simple, once they believed she was heaven sent they’d followed her like lambs to the slaughter. The entire religious, warrior-monk thing had helped; that sort of background encouraged mindless obedience.

The Knights were good, very good, but sometimes they lacked imagination, like this entire ‘kidnap Buffy’ thing they’d planned. Did they really believe that they could capture a slayer (pregnant or not) by using the same tactics as you might to capture an African despot? No this needed subtlety, careful planning and general sneakiness to pull it off…or failing that a mass attack by hundreds of fighters usually worked! Deciding that she’d need to take a hand in this operation (normally she was above actually killing people) Amy called General Chestikoff back into her drab little motel room.

“I have decided to take command of this operation personally,” she informed the sweating, trembling man before her.

“Of course, Your Holiness,” snivelled the general, “may I humbly remind Her Holiness that the operation against Colonel Finn is about to start?”

“Oh yes,” Amy suddenly wished she had a cat to stroke, “Colonel Finn…are we still in contact with our forces in the area?”

“Of course Your Holiness,” nodded the general; the plan had been to separate Buffy from her husband before the main part of the operation was put into action.

“Good,” Amy smiled evilly as she petted her imaginary feline, “I have a little alteration to the plan. Let’s make Buffy’s separation from her husband a little more permanent. Let’s see how Buffy likes being a widow…MAW-!” Amy coughed to cover the rest of her outburst of maniacal laughter, she glared once more at her general, “And couldn’t you have booked us into a better hotel?”

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

**The Kafiri, Afghan, Chinese Border.**

The helicopter touched down for just a moment preventing Riley from having to jump and letting him step onto the ground instead. He waved to the pilot as the Black Hawk roared up into the air again. Trotting away from the landing point, Riley glanced around to see the members of the strike force start to climb from the positions they’d taken up to cover the landing. Quickly the Rangers moved weapons and equipment across the dried up river bed towards the barren mountains that rose up sharply into the cold, thin air of Kafiristan. After adjusting his body armour and checking his weapon, Riley started to trot towards where he could see Captain Burns setting up his rally point.

They were here because the Kafiri’s were America’s allies, Riley doubted, however, that the Kafiri government would spring to America’s aid if she was ever attacked, but that was all politics and not his job. His job was destroying monsters, which was why he was here…mostly. The indigenous tribesmen, here abouts, worshipped the local version of the Hindu goddess Khali. The tribesmen would raid surrounding villages taking men and women who they’d sacrifice to their goddess. Normally the tribesmen would take one or two sacrifices a year, this was something the corrupt Kafiri government could safely ignore and pretend wasn’t happening. However, when the tribesmen started to take dozens of potential sacrifices a month this was something that, even they, had to be seen to be doing something about.

What better way of _doing_ something than to demand that their great friend, America, dealt with the problem for them? This way the local government could claim that it wasn’t their fault when everything went wrong; or, say how clever they’d been getting the Americans to do their dirty work for them if everything went according to plan. To add even more political intrigue into an already confusing situation the Chinese were involved, which had meant that a senior US military officer had to go along on a mission that would normally be commanded by the captain in charge of the Ranger strike force.

The Kafiri tribesmen had also been raiding into China, this had, quite understandably, annoyed the Chinese government. Aware that Kafiristan was an American ‘client’ state and not wanting to derail the present good relations between China and America by launching its forces across the border; the Chinese had suggested a joint operation. They would supply the slayers if the US would supply the firepower. The strike force was made up of fifteen rangers commanded by Captain Burns with First Lieutenant Kent as his second in command. All the rangers on the mission were experienced men with a minimum of five missions under their collective belts and were all trained in mountain warfare. Between them they carried enough fire power to distract the local tribesmen while the Chinese slayers went in and killed the 'goddess'.

Although it was several weeks since the last snowfall it was still very cold up in these high mountains. The terrain was barren in the extreme; with only some sparse, dry grass and a few stunted bushes down by the river to break the monotony of mountain sides strewn with rocks. Riley imagined that even goats would find it difficult to live here. He wondered how the local tribes scratched a living from the thin soil.

“Everything okay, Tim?” Riley asked as he walked over to Captain Burns.

“Sure is, Sir,” a wide smile split Burn’s dark face, “how’s your leg?”

“Fine, fine,” unconsciously, Riley started to rub his right thigh, “don’t worry about me keeping up,” Riley smiled at the other man’s concern, “just as long as you don’t expect me to do too much jumping about.”

“Still hurts?” Burns asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Riley stopped rubbing his leg, “that’s why I’m normally safely behind a desk.”

“Don’t worry,” Burns moved closer to Riley so they could speak without being overheard; they both knew Riley shouldn’t be anywhere near a combat zone. “Shouldn’t be much running and jumping just walking up and down these god-damned mountains.” Burns looked up at the peaks that towered above them before spiting onto the dry rocky soil, “soon have you back to that cute wife of yours, she’s near due isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Riley smiled at the thought of Buffy sitting at home waiting for him, “another three or four weeks.”

“Okay then,” Burns stepped away from Riley and looked around at his team mates, “mount up, let’s get this mission on the road so the Colonel can get back to his wife!”

Muted laughter greeted Burns’ words as the Rangers started to lift packs up onto their backs and checked their weapons. Burns pointed out his proposed route to Riley, who nodded his agreement with what the captain had planned. He once again pointed out that this was still Burns’ mission and he was only along for the ride. When the men were ready, Burns sent a couple of scouts on ahead of them before detailing a couple of men to drop back and tail the main force. Once he was satisfied, Burns signalled the strike force to start moving on up into the bleak mountains.

0=0=0=0

They’d only been following the faint track up the side of the mountain for about twenty minutes and Riley was just getting his second wind, when one of the scouts ran back down the trail to rejoin the column.

“Welcoming committee, Boss,” the scout told Burns.

“The Chinese?” Burns asked.

“Looks like,” nodded the scout, “there’s just this one guy in uniform sitting by the side of the track about a hundred metres on from where we stopped.”

“Okay,” Burns nodded, “get back up the track and check out the area, we’ll be right behind you.”

The scout left while Burns walked over to Riley.

“Looks like we’ve found out glorious allies,” Burns observed.

“Hey,” Riley gave Burns a slightly amused look, “you ever work with a slayer before?” Burns shook his head, “This is probably her way of showing off she’s probably been dogging us from just after we landed…so cut out the ‘glorious allies’ crap, okay?”

“Okay,” Burns shrugged his shoulders, “if you say so, Colonel, I just wish we could do this by ourselves, y’know?”

“So do I Tim,” agreed Riley, “so do I…for one thing I could be tucked up in bed with Buffy instead of being on this god-awful mountain.”

The strike force moved on around the side of the mountain until they came into view of the lone figure.

“He’s just been sitting there, Colonel,” the scout told Riley who was looking at the figure through his binoculars.

“She, sergeant,” Riley corrected, “she, unless I’m missing my guess is our slayer.”

“By herself?” whispered Burns as if he was frightened that the slayer might hear him.

“Doubt it,” Riley looked around at the hill side but saw nothing, “I expect she’s got a couple of friends close by.” Riley turned to speak to the rest of the strike force. “Listen up,” he called, “we’ll be joining our Chinese friends in a moment so I want everyone on their best behaviour, okay?”

“Okay, sir,” chorused the strike force.

“Okay,” Riley sighed as he advanced along the path, “let’s make nice.”

0=0=0=0

The lone figure stood up at Riley’s approach and turned to face the oncoming American. Riley had been right, the figure belonged to the Chinese slayer, he studied her closely as he approached. The woman was dressed in a disruptive pattern camouflaged uniform of green, brown and black on a grey background. On her head she wore a helmet, not dissimilar to an American one, covered with a camouflage cover in the same pattern as her uniform. She wore an equipment harness with the usual ammo and equipment pouches and water bottle. Over her right shoulder Riley could see the hilt of a sword and across her chest hung an AK 47 the weapon looking huge against her slight frame. Facing the American office she stood rigidly to attention and saluted.

“Zhong Wei Shihong,” the girl said in clear almost accent-less English, “Special Action Unit 459. Do I have the honour of addressing Colonel Riley Finn, United States Army Rangers?”

“You do,” Riley returned the girl’s salute; he knew ‘Zhong Wei’ was equivalent to 1st Lieutenant and that ‘Shihong’ was the girl’s ‘Christian’ or fore name. “Just as a matter of interest,” Riley asked as he lowered his arm, “what would you have done if I’d said ‘no’.”

“This,” the girl smiled before saying something in sharp Mandarin.

At her call nine figures rose out of the, until recently, empty landscape. They were all dressed in camouflaged uniforms (more like American woodland pattern that Shihong’s uniform) and they all carried the new Chinese QBZ-95 bullpup assault rifles. Except for a short figure who was dressed in much the same way as Shihong; the girl walked down the mountainside to stand next to the Chinese slayer. The newcomer also carried an AK 47 in her small hands, the weapon seemed far too big for the girl who looked about twelve; she snapped to attention when she saw Riley’s rank badges.

“Xue Yaun Luli!” piped the girl in clear but accented English.

Again Riley returned the salute, “Xue Yaun? That means Officer Cadet, am I right?”

“Correct,” Shihong replied, “Luli is my…” Shihong thought how best to explain to the American, “…how you might say, ‘Slayer under training’.”

“May I congratulate you on your command of English, Lieutenant,” Riley said as he walked slowly towards the two Chinese soldiers, “I’m afraid none of my men speak anything other than English.”

“I spent several years studying at North Western University,” Shihong explained before studying the Americans for a long moment. “Your lack of language skills,” she told Riley straight faced, “is only to be expected from cultural imperialists such as yourselves.”

Walking up behind Riley, Burns whispered in his ear, “Y’know, Colonel, I think we’ve just been insulted.”

“Y’know, Tim,” Riley whispered back, “I think we have.”

“However,” Shihong shrugged and gave a small smile, “I am ashamed to admit that the glorious People’s Liberation Army is little better. While I speak, what I am told is acceptable English, Luli’s English is basic and none of the soldiers speak anything but their native language and Army Mandarin…you better make sure I don’t get killed, Colonel,” Shihong smiled and gestured to the track behind her, “shall we continue, we have many kilometres to cover before night fall.”

“Lead on,” Riley agreed.

He watched and listened as Shihong issued sharp orders to the Chinese troopers, he noticed they followed her commands reluctantly. Observing the American officer’s look, Shihong walked over to stand at his side.

“I must apologise for the behaviour of my men, Colonel,” Shihong hung her head in shame, “you see they are Muslims and don’t like to take orders from a woman,” she sighed heavily. “One of the disadvantages of letting them continue to believe in their mythical god…however,” Shihong looked up and smiled, “rest assured I will not let their primitive mindset interfere with the smooth running of this operation.”

0=0=0=0

They’d been walking for maybe two hours when Shihong lifted her hand and brought the column to a halt. Walking back to Riley she drew him to one side.

“See?” Shihong pointed into the narrow valley below them.

Riley did see, there was a narrow track that snaked along the valley floor and led around a bluff and out of sight.

“That track leads to the target village,” she explained as she pulled a map from her pocket and opened it out.

Following suit, Riley pulled out his own map and opened it up, the two officers squatted on the path and lay their maps side by side. The Chinese map was a more traditional printed map, while the American one was made up from air and satellite reconnaissance photographs.

“Here,” Shihong’s finger pointed to a village at the head of a long twisting valley, “this is our objective, it’s about three kilometres more down the valley.”

Riley found the location on his own map.

“I will deploy my men here,” Shihong explained, “to form an ambush to prevent enemy reinforcements coming up the valley.”

“Reinforcements?” Riley frowned at the Chinese officer, “Our information was there was only this one village and about 35 fighters.”

“Your information is incorrect,” a smug smile crossed the young officer’s face for a moment, “our intelligence is better. There are several villages with nearly two hundred fighters, but this is the largest one with about fifty fighters and the devil they worship.”

“How likely is it that enemy reinforcements could interfere with our mission?” Riley wanted to know.

“Not very,” Shihong shrugged, “but is it not better to assume a worst case situation?”

“Yes,” Riley nodded as he called Captain Burns over.

“Good,” Shihong nodded, “I will deploy my men here,” Shihong indicated a point were the valley got so narrow it was only a few metres across. “While you and Captain Burns plan your attack.”

“You don’t trust your men to follow up on our attack?” Burns asked.

“No, Captain,” Shihong gave Burns a daggers look, “they are just local troops, better than most true, but still not really trained for this type of work. They can ambush tribal fighters well enough however.”

Moving away from Riley, Shihong barked orders at the Chinese squad in her sharp Mandarin before heading off down the valley. The Chinese soldiers seemed to follow her orders willingly enough this time. Riley found himself looking at the tiny Chinese slayer Luli; she noticed him looking at her.

“Comrade Lieutenant she say I watch, I learn capitalist tricks,” the girl explained innocently.

“Yeah okay,” Riley sighed; he had the distinct feeling that these two Chinese girls were working some sort of plan to make him look foolish, “Okay, Tim what do you think?”

0=0=0=0

Watching the village through his binoculars, Riley saw that it was a typical mud brick walled fortress on a conical shaped hill above a mountain river. To the left and right of the village-fort and leading down to the river were terraces containing the gardens were the women grew food. Little smoke rose from the village and when the wind gusted it carried the smell of death to Riley’s nose.

They’d cut across the wall of the valley taking about three hours in their approach. Thinking back, Riley now realised that they should have been suspicious at not having seen any look outs or anyone moving along the track at the bottom of the valley. There was no sign of life at the village either.

“What’s going on, Lieutenant?” Riley turned to look at Shihong; his leg was hurting and he was in no mood to be screwed around by the Chinese slayer.

“I assure you, Colonel,” Shihong replied tight lipped, “I am as mystified as you are.”

Riley studied the young woman’s face in the failing light, it was inscrutable.

“Tim?” Riley called softly as the American officer scrambled over to join him, “Something weird’s going on.”

“Tell me something new,” Burns’ dark face was split by a grin.

“Yeah,” Riley nodded slowly, “same old, same old. Look, get the guys ready we’ll go with the plan and go in at full dark, okay?”

“Fine by me, Colonel,” Burns nodded his agreement before crawling off to organise his men.

“Lieutenant Shihong?” Riley turned back to the Chinese officer, “We’re going with the original plan and attacking at full dark, okay?” Shihong nodded her agreement. “You want to borrow any night vision aids, we have spares?”

“Chinese slayers do not need ‘vision aids’,” Shihong replied levelly. “Anyway we have these,” Shihong pulled her own night goggles from a pouch on her equipment harness, “Japanese, lighter and better than American equipment.”

“Fair enough,” Riley sighed as he sat down under cover and started his own pre-combat checks.

0=0=0=0

**Some time later, inside the village.**

“What the hell’s going on here?” Riley demanded as he turned on Shihong.

The Rangers had split into two assault teams, one under each officer and attacked the village from opposite sides. After blowing in the walls to allow them into the village the Americans had not had to fire a single shot, all they’d found were the dead. Every man, woman and child had been killed, mostly by weapons fire but some had been cut down with swords or axes; even the ‘devil’ had been hacked to pieces.

“I assure you,” Shihong replied stiffly, “that I am as confused as you are.”

“Okay,” Riley shook his head and turned towards where Captain Burns stood, “Tim, it looks like someone has done our job for us. Let’s get organised and move back to the rally point. After that we can get the hell out of here!”

“Roger that Sir,” Burns turned to Lieutenant Kent, “get the guys organised, Clark, we’re outta here soonest!”

Walking back over to Riley, Burns spoke softly to his commanding officer.

“You think this is some sort of commie trick sir?” 

“To be honest, Tim I don’t know what to think,” Riley looked around at the bodies that littered the village square, “Whoever did this was well armed and well organised. The sooner we’re out of here the better.”

“Agreed, sir,” Burns eyed Shihong with suspicion, “How’s the leg?”

“Fine,” Riley lied, “I don’t think you’ll need to carry me out just yet.”

“If you say so, Sir,” Burns accepted Riley’s statement…for now. “Okay men,” Burns called in a loud whisper, “let’s get the fuck outta here!”

Turning to face the gate in the village wall, Burns eyes opened wide in surprise as Riley heard the wet meat sound of a bullet hitting flesh. Moments latter Captain Burns fell slowly to the sandy ground and the village came alive with the sound of gunfire. Hitting the dirt, Riley looked up to see a large black disk edged with fire; there were black clad figures issuing from the disc firing automatic weapons as they came. Bringing his M4 to his shoulder, Riley fired bursts into the on coming men. He was gratified to see some of the black clad troopers fall to his fire.

The air was full of hot lead as fighting became general around the square. Ceasing firing for a moment, Riley crawled back towards the edge of the square and into some cover. Lifting his weapon to his shoulder again he sent short bursts towards the attackers. Now the initial confusion was over, Riley could see a carpet of black-clad dead around the disc. The few attacker survivors had spread out and taken up defensive positions at the far end of the square. It looked as if the Rangers were winning this one.

Just as he was congratulating himself on having survived yet another firefight, Riley looked around and almost panicked. Black, flame edged discs were appearing all over the village and more black-clad fighters were pouring, in what seemed like an inexhaustible horde, into the square. They’d been sucker punched. The attackers, whoever they were, had sacrificed ten or fifteen of there own men just so the Rangers would commit themselves and give away their positions.

The sound of firing was almost deafening now as the Rangers fought for their lives. Horrified at what had happened, Riley realised that his men weren’t a unit anymore. The sudden appearance of massive enemy reinforcements had scattered his own unit’s cohesion. At times like this there was really only one option. Get out and save what you could.

Shouting orders into his personnel radio, Riley told what remained of the Rangers to break out singly or in small groups and head straight for the alternate rally point. Climbing slowly to his feet, Riley continued to fire at his attackers. He saw a couple of men go down but the answering fire of their comrades was getting dangerously close. Backing down a side ally, Riley stopped firing as he tried to break contact. Turning to run as fast as he could into the darkness to the narrow village streets, Riley felt something like a sledge hammer smash into his right leg. Falling to the ground, he managed to twist so he was facing in the direction of the square. He could just make out the silhouette of one of the black clad fighters walk slowly towards him.

Squeezing his trigger, Riley felt his heart stop for a moment as the rifle stopped firing after a couple of rounds. Crap! Riley thought, he was going to die and he’d never see his kid or Buffy again. The black-clad fighter raised his rifle to his shoulder and took careful aim as Riley frantically tried to pull his pistol from its holster. Suddenly his potential killer jerked and threw up his arms before being hurled back into the square by the force of the bullets hitting him. 

Hearing the distinctive sound of an AK 47, Riley turned to see Shihong standing over him her smoking rifle held loosely in her hands. Kneeling down beside him the Chinese slayer kept a close eye on the entrance of the ally.

“Are you hurt, Colonel?” she asked softly.

“No,” Riley sat up and quickly swapped the empty magazine in his M4 for a full one, “but they shot up my ‘wooden’ leg, I can’t walk.”

“Wooden leg?” Shihong frowned as she looked down at the twisted metal and plastic protruding from Riley’s fatigues. “Ah! I see, American joke…very funny. Here let me help you.”

Lifting Riley easily off the ground, Shihong put the carrying sling of her rifle over her head so it hung down across her chest.

“Here, I will carry you,” Shihong lowered her shoulder and butted it into Riley’s middle, she lifted him easily off his foot.

“Yeah, thanks,” Riley felt slightly embarrassed this sort of thing was happening to him all too frequently.

“We must get away from here,” Shihong started to trot down the narrow street away from the square and the sounds of fighting that was quickly fading away. “We have both been betrayed, Colonel but by whom and why I do not know.”

“Well it wasn’t my people,” Riley bounced on Shihong’s shoulder as she ran steadily towards the village wall.

“I hope you don’t think it was mine,” Shihong stopped, put Riley down then drew her sword.

Within thirty seconds she’d made a large hole in the mud brick wall, she helped Riley through and then rested him against the outside wall. Taking a few moments to rearranged her equipment she picked up Riley again and started to run.

“This is typical,” Shihong announced after five minutes of running; no one appeared to be coming after them.

“What’s that Lieutenant?” Riley replied as he bounced up and down on the girl’s back; he listened to Shihong’s steady footsteps on the stony ground.

“This,” Riley could hear amusement in the slayer’s voice, “Typical capitalist running dog riding the backs of the hard working workers and peasants!”

Riley joined in Shihong’s quiet laughter as they moved off further into the night.

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

**Amy’s Motel Room, Near Grandview.**

As far as Amy was concerned this wasn’t about revenge. True she had her own issues with Buffy Summers and her friends, but she’d wisely left those far behind her when she’d left Sunnydale. If Amy had wanted to kill Buffy, she’d have had one of her very good sniper teams put a .50 calibre depleted uranium round through her head at one-thousand yards, Buffy would have been dead before she’d even known she was in danger.

This was all about hard cash, or in this case, uncut diamonds; Amy admired the pebble sized piece of crystal in her hand before putting it back in its bag with its brethren. It didn’t look like much now, but once it was cut and polished it would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Along with all its smaller bothers and sisters it would be a major boast to her and the knight’s finances…but mainly her’s. Having no intention of spending the rest of her life leading this bunch of religious fanatics, Amy had every intention of taking the money and running. It looked like she’d be taking the exercise pretty soon now.

As soon as this contract was completed, Amy had decided that she was leaving, she had more than enough money in her untraceable bank accounts to last two or three life times. As soon as the client was happy, Amy was going to change her appearance (first by magic and then by surgery) and go to live somewhere with a good climate and sandy beaches. But that would all have to wait until the contract was completed.

The client didn’t want Buffy dead, which Amy thought was odd. What was the point of spending all that cash, or uncut diamonds, if there was no body to gloat over at the end of it all? The client was a gloater, Amy had seen the type before; just the sort that would tell the victim every detail of his cunning plan instead of getting on and killing the target. Not that Amy had any idea who the client actually was, she wasn’t even sure whether it was a man or woman, human or demon (Buffy had made a lot of enemies over the years). Amy suspected that the client was human and probably male. The only human male that she could think of that might want to do something like this to Buffy was Ethan Rayne.

Who the client really was didn’t bother her, the client had given her his instructions and paid the fee, Amy would see the contract through to the bitter end, however weird the instructions were. The Client didn’t want Buffy dead, he’d been most insistent on that. He did, however want all of her friends and family dead, even the child that Buffy was carrying. Amy was a little uncomfortable about this last, she didn’t like to kill children if it could be avoided, however a contract was a contract so the kid would have to go.

Once Buffy’s life had been totally destroyed, Amy and her Knights were to withdraw and leave Buffy to the client. Personally, Amy was okay with the ‘kill everyone that Buffy cared about’ thing. They’d all screwed with her life at one point or another. But wanting to ‘deal’ with a, what had to be by then, mightily pissed slayer was, well… Well it was an interesting and expensive way of committing suicide. In Buffy’s place, Amy wouldn’t rest until she’d killed everyone who’d messed with her life like that. A knock on her door jerked Amy out of her musing.

“Come!” she called imperiously; the door opened to admit General Chestikoff, the tactical commander of her knights.

“Ah!” Amy smiled insincerely, “General, good news I hope?”

“Indeed Your Holiness,” the general shut the door behind him and stood facing Amy with his hands behind his back.

“Well!” Amy snapped, “Don’t stand there all day like the fool you are, spit it out!”

“I beg to report, Your Holiness,” humbled Chestikoff started to make his report, “that Colonel Finn is almost certainly dead!”

“Almost certainly?” Amy rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, “Almost certainly is not the same as _definitely_ , explain yourself.”

“Our forces totally destroyed the Chinese and American soldiers, Your Holiness,” Chestikoff shifted uncomfortably where he stood, “there is no way Finn or the Chinese slayer could have survived…”

“But?” Amy raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“But,” Chestikoff looked down and studied the carpet for a moment, “we’ve been unable to find their bodies.”

“I don’t care about the slayer,” Amy spoke as if to a particularly slow child, “I want Finn dead! Keep our forces in the area, search under every stone if necessary and I want his body on the target’s doorstep once you’ve found it, understand?”

“Y-yes, Your Holiness,” Chestikoff stammered in fear.

“Now what of the meddlesome watcher?” Amy settled back in the pillows of the bed she was sitting on, once again she was experiencing a strange urge to stroke something warm and furry.

“Although Rupert Giles escaped death and has vanished, Your Holiness,” Chestikoff began nervously, “he is now wanted for questioning by the New Scotland Yard in connection with the death of the girl found in his apartment.”

“Another half victory,” Amy muttered angrily; although it was satisfying yelling at Chestikoff it wasn’t really his fault, Buffy’s friends did appear to be very difficult to kill. Looking up at Chestikoff she sighed again, “Stop fidgeting like a naughty child and sit down,” Amy pointed to a chair by the window.

“I’m sorry, General,” Amy said in a much softer tone, “I yell at you over things you have no control over…I think its time we rethink the problem.”

“In what way, Your Holiness?” Chestikoff sat on the edge of his seat and watched Amy apprehensively.

Starring at the stained ceiling of the motel room, Amy thought for a minute or two.

“Lets go back to basics, shall we General?” Amy said almost too softly for Chestikoff to hear, “I think we’re trying to be too flashy here,” Amy paused as a new plan formed in her mind. “The attack on Summers and Rosenberg, the attempt on Buffy’s child in the hospital. They were all badly thought out, we gave the target an opportunity to fight back, which is never something you should let slayers and witches do.”

“What do you suggest, Your Holiness?” Chestikoff asked quietly.

“Okay,” Amy smiled to herself, “what I want you to do is this…

0=0=0=0

**The Finn Residence.**

It was getting late, however Giles and Willow still sat in the living room while Buffy had gone to bed ages ago. Out in the garden, Faith prowled the night watching for unwary, black clad killers to inflict her own very special brand of mayhem on. With the two women otherwise occupied or asleep, Willow and Giles were able to talk.

“…it was while I was doing some research at the British Library,” the light from the fire flickered on his face as he spoke, “I found these medieval manuscripts written by some monk in the thirteenth century…”

“This is all very interesting, Giles,” Willow interrupted, “but what did this manuscript say?”

“I’m just coming to that,” Giles replied slightly annoyed that his account had been interrupted, “This Brother Edwin fellow obviously knew all about slayers and such because most of his book was about…”

“Giles!” Willow cried out, “Focus, we’ve not got much time here.”

“Sorry, yes of course,” Giles cast a nervous glance towards the garden, he was ever so slightly afraid that Faith might go back to her old ways, “anyway, at the back of the book there was this entire section of prophecies concerning the slayer.”

“So?” Willow shrugged, “We’ve seen and heard about this sorta thing before, we’ve always stopped the prophecies from coming true, why should this be any different.”

“Because it doesn’t actually concern Buffy,” Giles explained, “its more to do with the child she’s carrying…”

“I’d say that pretty much concerns Buffy,” Willow smiled at first but as she studied Giles’ face in the firelight her smile slowly slipped from her face, “Oh goddess,” Willow gasped, “what’s wrong with the baby?”

“Nothing,” Giles replied quietly, “but if what Brother Edwin says is true we may well wish something was and that it never gets to be born!”

“Oh crap,” Willow breathed quietly, “Ohgodohgodohgod!” things started to fit into place in Willow’s mind, she turned frightened eyes on Giles, “Maybe this is why I can never work out the child’s sex and why when I roll the bones they tell me there’s no future.”

“What!?” It was Giles’ turn to gasp, “Why didn’t you say before?”

“I thought my bones were worn out or broken,” Willow noted Giles’ incredulous look, “Hey, Giles, it happens y’know?”

“Well that’s as maybe,” Giles continued, “but this Brother Edwin seems to think that Buffy’s child will grow up to be the Anti-Christ and bring about the final apocalypse.”

“Hold on,” Willow thought about this for a moment, “how do you know that he meant Buffy? I mean, thirteenth century Giles, that’s way long ago.”

“His description of Buffy is the most accurate I’ve read,” Giles explained, “He describes her as short, blonde woman living in a great land across the Atlantic ocean the wife of an important soldier and the longest living slayer…I mean if that doesn’t describe Buffy, what does?”

“Yep,” Willow nodded, “that sounds like Buffy…” Willow frowned, there was something not right somewhere, “…are you sure this book thing was genuine?”

“Of course!” Giles sniffed, “It’s been in the British Library for years, they must have had it authenticated at sometime…why d’you ask?”

“Well,” Willow pursed her lips as she thought about the nagging doubt at the back of her mind, “wasn’t everyone short back in olden days? I mean Buffy might actually have been thought of as tall for a woman back then.”

“What!?” Giles looked at Willow aghast, “We’re basing our fears on whether this document is genuine or not on Buffy’s height?”

“Well…” Willow’s face screwed up in indecision, “…I just don’t think we should jump to conclusions about whether Buffy’s baby is the Anti-Christ or not.”

“Of course, we should ignore it,” Giles replied sarcastically, “after all I expect Hitler was a ‘cute’ baby too and we all know how well that turned out, don’t we?”

“Giles!” Willow raised her voice slightly, “I’m not saying we should ignore it, I’m just saying we shouldn’t jump to conclusions on the word of a monk-guy who died seven-hundred years ago…maybe he didn’t like babies or something.”

“Oh for god’s sake Willow!” Giles gave an exasperated sigh.

“No Giles, I’m serious,” Willow’s resolve face came into full force, “I’m not doing anything without checking first. You know as well as anyone that prophecies are tricky things and don’t always mean what you think they mean…I mean have you confirmed this prophecy with other sources?”

“Ah…well…” Giles hesitated as he began to see the sense in Willow’s reluctance to perform any premature medical procedures on Buffy, “…not as such, no.”

“Right there you are,” Willow felt vindicated and put her resolve face away until the next time she needed it, “for all we know Buffy’s baby might stop the apocalypse and this Edwin guy was in the pay of some hell fiend.”

“Yes,” Giles nodded, “you’re right of course,” he gave Willow a long searching look, “You know Willow you’ve grown very wise over the years, you’re definitely not the girl you once were.”

“I should hope not!” Willow laughed, “And as for wise you shoulda heard what Buffy said when I told her I was going to move in with Faith!”

“Ah…yes, Faith,” Giles reconsidered the entire ‘wise-Willow’ thing, “You two still…erm…I mean everything alright on that front?”

“Everything’s fine, Giles except…” Willow eyed Giles for a moment as she tried to work out what his reaction to her idea would be.

“What’s wrong, Willow?” Giles asked gently, “Faith’s not been…?”

“Why does everyone just assume I’d let Faith abuse me?” Willow hesitated before asking, “That was what you were assuming, right?”

“Something like that,” Giles smiled guiltily.

“Well she hasn’t,” Willow replied firmly, “this isn’t the old Faith this is new, brave, loyal, loving, kind Faith who’s willing to risk her life for her country, although what the country has ever done to inspire such loyalty in her I don’t know.”

“Of course,” Giles nodded wisely, “now what is it you want to tell me that you think I won’t approve of?”

“How’d…?” Willow stared at Giles for a moment.

“Willow I’ve known you since you were fifteen or sixteen,” Giles smiled in a fatherly way, “I can tell when you’re unsure about something.”

“Unsure? Ha!” Willow laughed bitterly as she realised she might as well let Giles in on the secret, “Unsure is just the half of it…”

“Then tell me the rest,” Giles urged, “I promise not to yell.”

“Okay, here goes,” Willow took a deep breath, “Like you know, I’ve always thought Faith’s memories were being blocked in some way.”

“Yes, I remember you saying,” Giles nodded.

“Well I did some research and I came up empty,” Willow shrugged, “if something is blocking her memories then its way more powerful than I thought.”

“So, you’ve given up the idea of giving Faith back her past?” Giles asked slightly relieved.

“Looks like,” Willow agreed, “but…”

“But?” Giles’ glasses came off and he started to polish, he had the feeling that Willow was going to come out with one of her ill considered plans; stuff what he’d said about her being wise, deep down she was still the reckless youth from Sunnydale.

“But Faith has found something out,” Willow looked around the darkened room fearful that they’d be overheard. “I should have realised it, she’s a trained investigator now and I think she found something out when we went to New York that time. I think she knows we’re lying to her about her past.”

“I see,” Giles agreed, perhaps Willow wasn’t going to be reckless, maybe she was simply concerned, maybe the reckless part was still to come.

“It made me think,” Willow said slowly, “if I can’t give her back her real past…I mean what do we really know about the old Faith?”

Giles opened his mouth to speak and then shut it again. Willow was right, they knew little of Faith’s real past and what they did know was coloured by their own experiences. Giving Faith back half a story was as bad as telling her nothing, half truths could destroy her just as easily as knowing everything.

“So what do you suggest?” Giles asked sombrely.

“Well you remember how the monks brought Dawn into existence?” Willow wanted to know.

“Yes,” Giles looked at Willow and wondered what it was that she was going to suggest.

“They managed to put a completely new person into the world as if she’d always been there,” Willow took a very deep breath, “I was thinking of doing the same sorta thing for Faith.”

“What?” Giles frowned, this didn’t sound reckless this sounded insane!

“Look those monks were really no-power, know nothings, they just repeated the spell by rote.” Willow watched Giles intently for a moment, when he didn’t immediately jump in with a proscription on her idea she continued. “We already have Faith and nearly ten years of memories, all we have to do is alter the history of the world prior to Faith losing her memory. All I need to do is insert a Faith that wasn’t a murderer and who isn’t a slayer…”

“How will you explain her slayer abilities?” Giles asked, despite himself he was curious; it was certainly an original idea and it could just work.

“We go with the super-soldier thing,” Willow explained with increasing enthusiasm, “that’s more or less worked in the past. Unfortunately it was a quick fix and I never had time to refine the idea to explain everything that Faith remembers from just after waking up.”

“Just how far have you gone with this?” Giles asked slowly.

“I’ve got the spell for the alternate past bit worked out,” Willow smiled to herself; Faith would soon have parents again, if Giles let her go through with the plan. “and I’ve almost finished working on the spell to make everyone believe it.”

“And the spell, does it involve…?” Giles was about to ask about any ‘dark’ aspects of doing the magic.

“Its actually really simple Giles,” Willow grinned in her enthusiasm, “way simpler than I’d imagined. There’s no blood sacrifice, just a load of chanting and some stinky chemicals and herbs…oh and loads of candles!”

“You’re sure?” Giles frowned, this all sounded too good to be true and like most things that sounded too good to be true, it probably was.

“Look, Giles,” Willow gave a nervous laugh, “I’ve learnt my lesson, this isn’t like raising Buffy from the grave, Bambi doesn’t have to die to change the past.”

“But the consequences Willow have you thought of that?” Giles tried to explain, “This could have unimaginable consequences, it could change people’s lives…you know like that butterfly flapping its wings thing.”

“There didn’t seem to be those sorts of consequences when Dawn was brought into being,” Willow pointed out, “I don’t see why it shouldn’t work for Faith…”

0=0=0=0

Outside in the garden Faith listened at the window, Willow and Giles seemed to have forgotten about her super-hearing. Having only just stopped outside the window, Faith hadn’t heard much, but what she had heard given her several very interesting questions to find the answers to. First; who the hell was ‘Dawn’, Faith had never heard the name before, unless Willow meant Buffy’s sister. Secondly, why had she been, ‘brought into being’? Thirdly, why did Willow sound like she intended to do the same to her?

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10.

**Willow and Faith’s bedroom.**

“Who’s Dawn?” Faith asked as she climbed into bed next to Willow.

“Dawn?” Willow replied sleepily.

“Yeah,” Faith got down under the covers and stroked some of Willow’s hair away so she could see her face properly, “I heard Mr Giles mention the name a couple of times…is that his girlfriend…wife maybe?”

“HA!” Willow’s laughed as her eyes went wide and a smile crossed her lips, “Yeah right,” Willow sniggered, “like, Dawn as Giles’ girlfriend!”

“Or wife,” Faith added as Willow sniggered once more.

“That’s totally sooo funny,” Willow giggled, she was wide awake now, she pushed herself up the bed so she half lying, half sitting as she looked down at Faith, “like that would ever happen…”

“So tell me who she is,” Faith asked as she wondered why the mention of this Dawn woman was causing Willow so much amusement.

“Okay,” Willow nodded as some of the laughter left her eyes, “but you’ve gotta promise me that you won’t tell Buffy I said anything.”

“Sure, okay,” Faith nodded as she began to wonder just how many secrets these people were hiding.

“Promise,” Willow said firmly, “say it…”

“Okay,” Faith shrugged, “I promise not to mention this conversation or its contents to Buffy,” she raised an eyebrow at Willow, “happy now?”

“Good enough,” Willow rolled onto her side so she was facing Faith, “you see Dawn is Buffy’s little sister…”

“How little?” Faith wanted to know; so this Dawn girl was Buffy’s sister as she’d suspected.

“About four years, so you can see why I laughed at the idea of Giles having Dawn as a girlfriend,” Willow explained.

“Okay I get that,” Faith paused before asking her next question, “so, why have I never heard of her before?”

“Buffy and Dawn had a falling out just about when Dawn left home to go to college,” Willow sighed sadly, “Buffy didn’t like Dawn’s career plans.”

“So what did she wanna be?” Faith’s hand came up and stroked Willow’s face, “Was she goin’ to Stripper College or something?”

“No,” Willow shook her head, “Dawn wanted to be a nurse.”

“A nurse?” it was Faith’s turn to frown now, “What’s so bad about being a nurse?”

In Faith’s book, nurses were cool, sexy even.

“Nothing!” Willow shifted so she could look directly into Faith’s eyes, “I thought it was great but Buffy didn’t think it was such a good idea. She wanted to keep Dawn close what with her being the sister of the chief slayer…”

“Uh-huh, I see,” at least Faith thought she did; so, Buffy is, or was, the Chief Slayer and also a bit of a control freak.

“Don’t say ‘Uh-huh’ like that,” Willow dug Faith in the ribs with a sharp finger, “there were issues.”

“Ow!” Faith wriggled about trying to get away from the jabbing finger, “Issues?” she asked, “What sorta issues.”

“Oh, the usual,” Willow sighed sadly, when Dawn left it had been one of the saddest days of her life, it was as if her own sisters were fighting. “Buffy was worried that Dawn would keep getting kidnapped by demons…” Willow wriggled about some more, “…when Dawn was a teenager vamps and demons were forever kidnapping her to get to Buffy. It sorta became an ‘in joke’,” Willow paused as she reconsidered what she’d just said, “in a very sick and disturbing way.”

“It sounds like you were stuck in the middle,” Faith replied sympathetically.

“Sure was,” Willow sulked, “anyway, Dawn stormed out after one really big fight, she transferred to a different college and even changed her name…I sorta helped her with that, so Buffy mustn’t find out.”

“So what does this Dawn do now?” Faith asked.

“She’s now Nurse Chloe Payne,” Willow rolled over onto her back, “she works in a hospital in Jersey City.”

“Has she been kidnapped by demons lately?” Faith asked before kissing Willow softly on the lips.

“No,” Willow’s hand drifted up Faith’s body until it came to rest on her breast, “do you mind if we don’t talk about this any more?”

“That depends on what else you’ve got planned,” Faith smiled.

“I’m sure I can think of something fun,” Willow replied innocently.

0=0=0=0

Later, after they’d made love and Willow was sleeping the sleep of the sexually satisfied, Faith lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. So Mrs F had a little sister who’d got so pissed at her that she’d left home and changed her name; either Colonel Finn was some kinda Saint to put up with Buffy, or, Mrs F was only like that with younger sisters.

Turning her head, Faith looked at Willow. How peaceful she looked, lying there with her head full of secrets. Once again Faith wondered if Willow really loved her or was this all a game set up by Mrs F and the Colonel to keep an eye on herself. Perhaps they wanted to make sure she never found out about her past. Maybe this was all some weird game…she hoped not. Her feelings for Willow ran deep and Faith didn’t know if she could take the truth if it turned out Willow was just playing a part. Until she found out for sure, Faith was willing to give Willow the benefit of the doubt.

However, she wasn’t so sure about Buffy Finn; what was her agenda? Did she have an agenda or was she just the slightly ditzy wife of her C/O who happened to be one of these slayer-women. Faith didn’t know, like she still didn’t know why this Dawn girl had been, ‘brought into being’ and why Willow wanted to do the same to her. Lying there in the dark, Faith had so many questions and not enough answers. It seemed that every time she looked into something she just found another mystery. When the present situation was dealt with, Faith promised herself that she’d get to the bottom of everything.

0=0=0=0

**A Mountain Cave near China.**

Finding himself dumped unceremoniously at the cave mouth, Riley pushed himself up so as to be in a sitting position.

“I take it we’ve arrive,” he looked around at the desolate mountainside, “I hope you’ve got survival equipment stashed in this cave or else we’re going to spend a very uncomfortable day and night.”

“Do not worry, Colonel,” Shihong replied levelly, she was breathing heavily but was quickly recovering from carrying Riley on her back for half the night and following morning, “I have enough supplies and equipment, ‘stashed’ as you say, to satisfy even your soft, Western needs.”

“Okay, enough with the digs at my ‘soft western ways’,” Riley snapped, “instead you can tell me if you’ve got some tools so I can try and repair this damn leg of mine.”

“I meant nothing by it, Colonel,” Shihong replied a little taken-a-back, “I didn’t mean to…”

“No,” Riley shook his head slowly, “no it’s me who should say sorry, I didn’t mean to snap…it’s just that, well, spending my day being bounced up and down while a girl half my size carries me to safety…well, it doesn’t do much for my fragile, male, ego.”

“Ah…a joke?” Shihong asked hesitantly, she sighed with relief when Riley nodded, “Good,” the Chinese slayer smiled brightly, “why do you feel that your manhood has been challenged by me having to carry you? Are we not comrades in arms and so should we not help each other when we are in difficulties?”

“Put like that, yes,” Riley admitted.

“And is not your wife, Buffy, a slayer?” Shihong watched the surprise on Riley’s face before adding, “I read your file before coming on this mission.”

“Know your enemy?” Riley asked.

“No,” Shihong shook her head before taking off her helmet, “no I wanted to get to know a possible friend…your wife is very pretty…” Shihong paused before adding, “…for a foreign-devil!” She giggled at Riley as she walked over to where Riley sat and held out her hand to him, “here, I’ll show you were the tools are ‘stashed’.”

Pulling Riley to his foot, Shihong put her shoulder under his arm to support him as he hopped into the cave with her.

Sometime later, Riley sat on a camp chair as he worked at a rough table. He’d unstrapped his false leg and was doing his best to repair it. A bullet had passed through the main support leaving it unable to support his weight. The force of the bullet hitting had twisted the leg around where it fitted on to his stump. If he could find a way of reinforcing the main support it should take all his weight again and he’d be able to move about unaided.

Having discussed the problem with Shihong the girl had thought for a moment, nodded her head and disappeared into the back of the cave. Minutes later she reappeared and handed him half a dozen metal rods each about twelve inches long.

“Cleaning rods for AK47,” she informed him, “no one will miss them, there’s a soldering iron in here somewhere too,” once again she disappeared into the depths of the cave. “It won’t be as strong as a weld but it is better than nothing.”

While Riley worked to repair his leg, Shihong got on the radio to her headquarters. He didn’t understand Chinese or whatever language she was speaking, but he did know an annoyed woman when he heard one.

“What’s the news?” Riley asked as Shihong joined him by the table.

“A relief force will be landed further down the valley,” Shihong explained, “they will approach on foot, it’ll take about six hours to get here.”

“Wouldn’t it be quicker to send in some helicopters right here?” Riley wanted to know.

“Quicker but more dangerous,” Shihong explained, “someone has equipped the local tribes with surface to air missiles. If the helicopters were detected there is a good chance that they will be attacked,” Shihong gave a long hard sigh, “Also we have not got so many helicopters in this district that we can afford to let even one be shot down.” Smiling she added, “But, the Glorious People’s Liberation Army, with its usual fore thought and planning has equipped this cave with all the comforts of home…if your home is a hut on the steppe.”

“Sorry?” Riley laughed as he left off soldering for a moment.

“Oh, do not mind me,” Shihong shrugged, “the cave has supplies to last weeks, weapons, sleeping bags everything for our survival needs. I’m worried about Luli…”

“You think she might have been killed?” Riley asked as he went back to his work.

“Yes…” Shihong paused before adding, “...no…slayers are hard to kill. If there was a way out I am confident that Luli would have found it, it is just…it is like she is my little sister you understand?”

“I think I do,” Riley nodded as he put the finishing touches to his leg, he often felt the same way about the men and women under his command.

“Let us not talk of such maudlin things,” Shihong grinned, “tell, me about your wife, Buffy sounds such a pretty name.”

“I’ll tell her that when we get home,” Riley laughed.

“And you will get home to your Buffy, Colonel,” Shihong’s face had lost its grin and was now deadly serious, “I promise you that.”

0=0=0=0

**The Finn Residence the following day.**

Coming in from the back yard, Willow and Faith were met by a scowling Buffy Finn.

“I hope you’ve finish shooting up my back yard?” Buffy asked, she didn’t like guns, she’d been shot and nearly killed by Warren Meers and it kind of coloured her world view of pistols and firearms in general.

“Sorry,” Willow’s good mood left her almost immediately.

Faith had been right; Willow had enjoyed shooting the revolver she’d given her. After a little initial nervousness Willow’d found she’d liked shooting. It also had other advantages, first and probably most importantly, if she had a gun she wouldn’t have to use magic as lethal force. Not that she killed people all that often; those three commandos had been her first ‘kills’ in years. Normally she’d render attackers unconscious or something, but those three ninja guys had taken her by surprise and… Well, now there were three less ninjas in the world.

The other good thing about learning to shoot was that it meant that now she could qualify on the ASID pistol range and she’d be able to accompany Faith on some of her missions. Lastly and most importantly, at least to Willow, it meant it was something more that Faith and herself could do together. Okay they had the Tango, but Willow had always wanted to be able to do something that was part of Faith’s army world. After all Faith took an interest in her magic, so Willow felt she needed to do something that supported Faith in her world.

“Hey come on Mrs F,” Faith smiled, “its not like your back yard’s gonna win any prizes.”

“I know,” Buffy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “it’s just…”

“I know you got shot,” Faith finished for her, “been there done that…”

“Yeah Buffy,” Willow joined in, “you were only shot once, Faith’s been shot loads of times, she’s even been shot in the bu…!”

“Willow!” Faith said warningly; she’d been shot in the butt while on a convoy escort in Iraq; Faith preferred that the fewer people knew about that the better.

“Sorry, honey,” Willow said to Faith before turning back to Buffy, “but yeah, Faith has been shot loads of times and nearly killed, you don’t find her going; ‘Yuck, keep those guns away from me!’, do ya?”

“Willow,” Buffy looked closely at her friend for a moment, “you do know you’re starting to sound like Faith now?”

“And what’s wrong with that?” Willow said defensively just as Giles joined them in the kitchen.

“If I’m not mistaken,” Giles announced as he stepped into the room, “do I hear the annual ‘I hate guns’ argument?”

“Yeah Mr Giles,” Faith turned her eyes on the grey haired watcher, “where do you stand on the gun question, can you shoot?”

“Yes I can shoot,” Giles nodded.

“Giles!” Buffy and Willow said in chorus as they both turned to look at him.

“You never said anything,” Buffy gasped.

“I knew how you felt about firearms,” Giles shrugged, “but yes I can shoot, shotguns mainly, but I’ve fired a revolver once or twice, in fact,” Giles looked directly at Faith, “in the present situation it might be advisable for Faith to give me a quick refresher.”

“Sure thing, Mr Giles,” Faith nodded.

“Hey,” Willow glanced at Faith, “how come Giles is suddenly ‘Mr Giles’ and Buffy’s “Mrs F’? I thought it was first names only.”

“Right,” Faith smiled, “Mr Giles is old an’ sounds like a Brit Officer, an’ Buffy’s all pregnant and married to my C/O and…”

“And?” Willow crossed her arms over her chest and started to tap her foot.

“And,” Faith shrugged, “I don’t go to bed with them…”

Just then a loud knock on he front door saved Faith from having to explain any further.

“I better get that,” Faith hurried out of the kitchen and headed for the front door.

The truth was she just didn’t feel comfortable calling Mrs F, ‘Buffy’, just like she didn’t feel comfortable calling Mr Giles, ‘Giles’. Perhaps she’d been in the army too long. Whatever, Faith sighed a little as she checked her pistol before opening the door; she had no ‘Ambush Cramps’ so she was fairly certain that it was safe. However her ambush cramps weren’t one-hundred percent reliable so…

Hiding her pistol behind her leg, Faith opened the door a crack with her left hand ready to jump back and start firing if it proved to be ninjas knocking on the door. Peering through the crack between the door frame and the door, Faith felt the blood drain from her face.

“Chief Lehane, isn’t it?” asked the taller of the two army officers, a Captain.

“That’s right Chaplin,” Faith nodded her head.

“I’m Chaplin West,” the tall officer introduced himself, “and this is Lieutenant Foster, Family Liaison Officer for Fort Drum,” West introduced the female officer next to him. “Is Mrs Finn in, we need to speak to her.”

“Yeah,” Faith backed away as she opened the door wide and slipped her pistol back into its holster, “she’s…she’s in the kitchen, you better come through.”

Leading the two officers through Buffy’s house Faith knew the appearance of the two officers meant one of three things; Colonel Finn was either, WIA, MIA or KIA.

Watching the officers go into the kitchen, Faith stayed outside, they wouldn’t want her there not just now, later maybe. Listening without really trying she heard the Chaplin start to speak. Almost immediately Buffy let out a great long wail of anguish, bursting into the kitchen, Faith was just in time to help Willow catch Buffy before she fell to the floor.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11.

**The Finn Residence, Buffy’s Bedroom.**

“Am I being punished, Will?” Buffy sniffed, she’d mostly stopped crying now and was sitting on her bed propped up by a pile of pillows.

“No sweetie,” Willow reassured her as she sat on the bed holding Buffy’s hand, “why would you be being punished?”

“For all the bad things I did to Faith,” Buffy covered her eyes with her free hand as if she was ashamed to look at her best friend, “for not killing Angel when I should have, for…”

“Hey!” Willow shook Buffy’s hand to get her attention, “Look at me Buffy,” Willow urged her friend, “look at the woman who tried to destroy the world, compared to that your screw ups were nothing!”

“Darn-it Will,” Buffy forced a smile, “you’re always gonna win with that one.”

“Darn-tootin’,” Willow agreed with a firm nod of the head, “everything we did back then, every time we screwed up, well…”

“Well?” Buffy looked expectantly at Willow hoping that her friend would come up with something that would assuage her guilt.

“Well…” Willow frowned, “…well, we were stupid teenagers back then. Y’know teenagers not known for making the right choices an’-and Giles didn’t always help…and there was Xander always moping around you or dating demons or worse yet Cordelia!” Willow took a quick breath and carried on talking before Buffy had a chance to interrupt. “And there I was playing the big, bad, powerful witch when I was just a silly little girl and…and…”

“Okay Will I think you’ve made your point,” Buffy took a tissue from the box on her night stand and dabbed at her eyes before blowing her nose.

“No, the point I’m trying to make is…” Willow sighed sadly as she remembered all the mistakes she’d made back in Sunnydale. “We did what we thought was the right thing and sometimes we were wrong…”

“I could have been nicer to Faith…” Buffy admitted as she thought of the woman down stairs who would fight to the death to protect her, “…I could have been more welcoming, less…jealous.” Buffy laughed bitterly, “God! When you think of what we know about Faith’s past now and I was jealous of her!?”

“That’s what I mean,” Willow tried to explain, “we didn’t know, how could we have guessed, Faith didn’t exactly open up to any of us…well, she opened up to Xander but not in a verbal way. She could have come clean and opened up to all of us and there I go with the sexual innuendo again, but I wasn’t that nice to her either it wasn’t until I met Kennedy that I realised my true feelings for Faith and then when…”

“Breathe girl,” Buffy gave her friend a genuine smile, “But you’re making up for it now, Will.”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Willow hung her head feeling a little ashamed of herself; she’d come up here to comfort her friend and all they seemed to be doing was talking about Faith.

“We’ve got to tell her the truth,” Buffy said quietly.

“What!?” Willow squeaked, “But that would be _sooooo_ bad Buffy…it would totally destroy her…”

Willow stopped talking and engaged her brain; she had to decide whether it was her own selfish self interest that was stopping her telling Faith about her past or the concern she felt for the woman she loved. There was also her fear that everyone she loved would end up going to prison if Faith remembered her past.

“No,” Willow said after a moment or twos thought, “you’re right we must tell her everything…”

“Then if she wants you can use your spell and rewrite history,” Buffy pointed out quietly, “and Will?”

“Yeah,” Willow nodded her head slowly; there was absolutely no-way she was going to tell Faith anything because after she’d cast the spell she wouldn’t need to, Buffy just needed a little reassurance for now.

“If you do,” Buffy looked down at her belly, “could you make it so that none of this ever happened?”

“I’m not sure I can,” Willow admitted before realising that that wasn’t what Buffy wanted to hear right now, “I’ll try.” Willow reached for a tissue to wipe her own eyes, “I’m not being a very good friend, I came up here to make you feel better and all we’ve done is talk about me and Faith.”

“It’s helped, Will,” Buffy smiled, “for a moment there I stopped worrying about Riley…”

“A whole moment?” Willow asked.

“Look,” Buffy pushed herself up and started to swing her legs off the bed, “I’m the wife of a soldier I’ve got to get used to this kinda stuff,” she took a deep breath, “Riley’s good at what he does and he wouldn’t want me trying to stop him doing what he loves; its like if he tried to stop me being a slayer. I’ll just have to…” Buffy searched for the right words, “…well,” she shrugged, “soldier on!”

0=0=0=0

**A Motel in Grandview.**

“Everything is in place, Your Holiness,” General Chestikoff announced as he walked into Amy’s room.

“Good,” Amy smiled happily; very soon now she’d be able to leave this dead and alive dump and go somewhere nice, she’d always had a hankering to visit Hawaii.

“The house of the Whore of Satan, is surrounded,” Chestikoff smiled, “there will be no escape for her or her friends.”

“No…no, of course not,” Amy frowned; there was just a little nagging fragment of conscience left stabbing at the back of her mind.

“Something is wrong Your Holiness?” Chestikoff asked his face full of concern.

“The child,” Amy looked at her general, “tell me again what happens to the child.”

“As I explained…” Chestikoff began but was interrupted by Amy.

“Then explain it again,” Amy ordered.

“The teams now surrounding the house will attack drawing the defenders attention to the action outside the house,” Chestikoff explained. “Then, once all their attention is focused on the danger from without, you, Your Holiness, will open a portal inside the house. This will allow our killer squad to enter the building.” Chestikoff eyed his Saint warily, she seemed distracted but he continued outlining the plan. “While the Killer Squad kills all The Whore’s friends and defenders, the Medical team will subdue the slayer and remove the devil spawn from her belly and kill it leaving the slayer alive…”

“No,” Amy said firmly.

“No, Your Holiness?” Chestikoff asked truly puzzled.

“The child is an innocent in all this…” Amy began but this time the General interrupted her.

“But, Your Holiness,” he began, “you yourself said that the child was The Spawn of Satan and had to be destroyed. You said that if it was allowed to grow up it would become the Anti-Christ and bring about the final apocalypse.”

Yes, Amy told herself she had in fact said that. In fact she’d gone to some lengths to plant that ‘Medieval Manuscript’ in the British Library just where Rupert Giles would find it. The old watcher had always been open to doubt and a good prophecy. He could normally be relied upon to ere on the side of caution; as long as he was convinced of the rightness of his cause he could be relied on to kill the child if the Knights failed to do so. But obviously this time her plan had failed. It was of no matter, like she’d told herself sometimes subtlety didn’t work where brute force and ignorance did.

“I was...mistaken,” Amy said simply; she did however notice the look of doubt on Chestikoff’s face, she needed to give him an explanation, “after much thought and prayer, God told me that I was to save the child from its mother and bring it up in god’s light.”

“But, Your Holiness…” Chestikoff fidgeted as he tried to come to grips with his new orders; somehow they didn’t seem right.

“Are you questioning me, General?” Amy asked menacingly, “More importantly are you questioning god’s will?”

“No, Your Holiness, but…” Chestikoff struggled with the new thoughts that were entering his mind.

Was Saint Amy of Madison really the Lord’s servant or was she just one of Satan’s witches sent to deflect the Knights from their true path? He didn’t know, he would have to pray on this, if it turned out that Her Holiness was in the service of Satan he could soon kill her and put things aright.

“No buts, General,” Amy stood up and gave her General her most imperious look, “the plan remains the same except that the child lives and is brought to me, is that understood?”

“Yes, Your Holiness,” Chestikoff bowed.

“Then go and start the operation,” Amy ordered.

Watching Chestikoff leave her room, Amy frowned thinking she might have gone just a little too far, but… But she couldn’t bring herself to kill a baby, Buffy believing that her child was dead would fore fill the client’s needs. Once again Amy wondered who the client was, she’d made some discreet enquiries and discovered that Ethan Rayne was a mere shadow of his former self. What was more he was now in the hands of the New York Slayers. So, Rayne couldn’t be the client. However there were still half a hundred demons and humans rich enough to pay for her services.

Frowning even harder than before, Amy wandered over to the window and looked outside. This all felt personal to her, whoever the client was he or she had a personal grudge against Buffy Summers. Running through a list of people in her mind (a list that included herself) Amy came to the conclusion that there was only one person left alive that might want something like this set up. The clue was that ‘he’ (Amy was now almost certain that the client was a ‘he’) wanted Buffy alive but broken so that… Amy smiled, moments later her smile turned into a laugh.

“Xander Harris!” she chuckled, “This is soooo him!”

Not satisfied with using her to put a love spell on Cordelia, he’d called up a song and dance demon to see if his affair with Anya would end, ‘happily ever after’. Idly Amy wondered how many people that spell had killed. Yes, Xander Harris who’d always wanted to get into Buffy’s pants and she’d always turned him down for the first fang-some guy that wandered by. That had to make him bitter. 

Plus she’d been paid in uncut diamonds; hadn’t Harris been sent to Africa? It was totally within the realms of possibility that he’d picked some up while he was out there not realising that he probably wouldn’t be able to sell them once he got back to the States. Another thing that made her suspicious that Harris was behind all this was that he seemed to have vanished off the face of the world. When she’d first accepted the commission she’d had her agents trace all the people who were close to Buffy Summers. Xander Harris hadn’t even come up on their radar.

Turning away from the window, Amy tried not to frown, it caused lines around the eyes and mouth. Harris was just the sort that would want to be in at the kill and ruin everything. As she’d noted to herself before the client was a ‘gloater’. He’d want to see his one time friends die. He’d want to appear to Buffy as her only hope, as her saviour. For a minute Amy considered calling the entire operation off. But that might just push Chestikoff over the edge and he might come after her. No, she wouldn’t call things off she’d deal with Harris herself. He’d tried to blackmail her to do that love spell and hadn’t all the Scoobies left her hanging in the wind to deal with her growing magic addiction by herself? 

Walking over to a closet, Amy removed a shoulder bag; checking the contents she saw several powerful magic items, with these she felt confident about challenging Willow Rosenberg’s magic. Placing the bag over her shoulder, Amy opened another closet and removed a machine-pistol and half a dozen spare magazines.

“Just in case,” she told herself before heading for the door.

0=0=0=0

**The Finn Residence, early afternoon.**

“Tea?” Giles asked as he looked over his shoulder to see Faith walk into the kitchen.

“No…no thanks,” Faith went to look out of the back door window, something was making her feel uneasy.

“What’s wrong?” Giles asked as he sipped his tea; he studied Faith for a moment or two, she’d certainly changed from when he’d first known her, a great improvement he thought.

“You said you could shoot, right?” Faith turned to face Giles making him start slightly.

“Y-yes,” Giles nodded, “but I’m a little rusty, why?”

“I think it’s time for that refresher course,” Faith moved quickly across the kitchen, opened the cupboard above the working surface next to he oven and pulled out an automatic pistol and a couple of spare magazines.

“Load like this,” Faith ejected the magazine already in the weapon and then slammed it back in before hauling back on the slide, “safety on,” she pointed to the safety catch, “and off…you’ve got fourteen rounds before you need to reload an’ you’ve got two spare mags,” she pressed the pistol and magazines into Giles’ hand.

“W-what’s going on?” Giles demanded as he tried to juggle his tea cup, pistol and spare magazines in his hands; the tea cup lost out and fell to the floor with a crash.

“They’re out there,” Faith announced as she pulled her own weapon from its holster and loaded the first round.

“Who?” Giles now had the spare mags in the pocket of the cardigan he was wearing and he held the pistol uncertainly in his hand.

“Whoever’s after Mrs F and everyone,” Faith glanced out the window; her ambush cramps were churning in her stomach and she thought she’d seen something move in the woods that came up to the edge of the garden.

“Right!” Giles looked at Faith, “What do we do?”

“You go upstairs an’ get Willow and Mrs F down into the basement, the walls are concrete down there and there’s only two entrances. Keep them down there until this is all over.”

“What are you going to do?” Giles asked as he followed Faith towards the stairs leading up to the bedrooms.

“Me?” Faith laughed as she ran up the stairs, “I’m gonna kill the bastards…now MOVE IT SOLDIER!”

Galvanised into action Giles made best speed up the stairs and towards Buffy’s bedroom.

Bursting into her and Willow’s room, Faith got down on her knees and pulled her weapons bag from under the bed. Quickly she pulled out her trusty Assault Shotgun and slapped a ten round magazine into its receiver. After cocking the weapon she laid it on the bed and put on the equipment harness she had stashed in the bag. Checking the spare magazines for her shotgun and the spares for the .45 pistol she carried, Faith stood up just as she heard the flat *BANG!* of a grenade going off down stairs.

Rushing out onto the landing she found Buffy, Giles and Willow huddled to one side of the corridor next to the stairs.

“Wait here,” Faith ordered as she started down the stairs.

Coming out into the hall next to the front door, Faith was just in time to catch a glimpse of two ninjas through the window as they ran towards the door. Waiting for a breath, Faith fired her shotgun when she guessed the ninjas would be in line with the door. Her shot blew a huge hole through the door and there was a scream from outside followed by a burst of automatic fire. The rounds passed through the space that Faith had been occupying moments before to impact the wall. A grenade was tossed through the hole in the door, it exploded spraying lethal shrapnel across the hallway and through the wooden walls.

Lying safely on the floor, Faith watched as the door was kicked open and five ninjas burst into the hall spraying the ground floor with sub-machine-gun fire. The bullets passed harmlessly over Faith’s head as she brought her AS2 to bear. Triggering the weapon, she listened to its comforting boom as the storm of ‘00’ buckshot cut the ninjas down. Once the last black clad assassin was dead, Faith was up again and moving.

Bursting back into the kitchen, Faith gunned down the two ninjas who’d gained access through the back door. Throwing herself to the ground she crawled towards the door as bullets shredded the door and walls above her head. Poking her shotgun’s barrel out the door she fired twice bringing down three more ninjas before she had to roll away and change her magazine for a full one.

Seemingly giving up on entering the house, the ninjas outside started to try and knock it down by filling it full of bullet holes. Faith grinned, that sorta thing only worked in films. Keeping her head down she crawled across the wood and glass littered floor until she got back out into the hall. There was a pause in the firing from outside, obviously the bad guys were reloading.

“You guys still up there?” Faith called.

“Yeah,” Willow’s thin, frightened voice drifted down to her from above.

“Okay, forget about the basement,” Faith shouted, “barricade yourselves in one of the bedrooms and keep your heads down!”

“What about you?” Willow wanted to know.

“I’ll be fine don’t worry about me,” Faith actually thought it was nice to have someone worry about her, “This can’t go on for much longer the cops and army’ll be here soon…”

“Okay,” Willow replied uncertainly.

Faith’s attention was dragged away from what Willow and the others were doing upstairs by the sound of many voices giving a yell and many feet running towards the house.

“Here they come,” Faith told herself softly as she prepared to fight for everyone’s life, “as black as hell and as thick as grass.”

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

**The Finn Residence.**

Sitting on the floor of Buffy’s bedroom, Willow stared at the barricaded door and listened to the *BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!* of Faith’s shotgun going off down stairs. As soon as Faith stopped firing there’d be an answering burst of automatic fire and sometimes a loud sharp bang. Faith had told her enough about combat for Willow to know those were grenades going off. However, after every burst of firing or loud bang Faith’s shotgun would start up again…so far.

Clutching the gun, that Faith had given her, in both hands, Willow realised just how heavy it was, she felt sure that she’d never be able to lift it and point it at anyone if they got passed Faith. Those words echoed through her mind, ‘got passed Faith’. If anyone got passed the woman she loved, Willow knew that that would mean just one thing, Faith would be dead. Faith would die rather than let the ninjas up stairs. Faith would die having never learnt the truth about the people who she was trying to protect. To Willow that felt so unfair, another burst of firing made her jump; waiting while she listened to her pounding heart Willow waited for Faith to shoot back. The oddly comforting sound of Faith’s shotgun never came only more automatic fire that seemed to make the house tremble.

“Oh goddess,” Willow moaned miserably, Faith was down probably killed while she, the most powerful witch in the world sat there and did nothing. “Here…” Willow pressed her revolver into Buffy’s hand.

“Will?” Buffy watched round eyed as Willow stood up, “Willow what are you doing?”

“Stay here with Giles,” Willow looked across the room to where Giles crouched behind the barricade by the door, “Giles, don’t let them take Buffy…”

“Of course,” Giles nodded his head, “where are you going?” he asked already suspecting the answer.

“To help Faith,” Willow replied just before she vanished.

0=0=0=0

Reappearing at the top of the stairs, Willow crouched down, just at the moment there was no firing going on but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t start up again at any moment. Looking over the edge of the stairs, Willow saw the death and destruction that had been inflicted on Buffy’s nice, new house; Willow couldn’t help thinking that Buffy was going to be majorly pissed when she saw the mess.

Just inside the front door lay the bodies of five or six ninjas their blood staining the bullet pocked walls and forming into thick black pools on the wooden floor. Taking a deep breath, Willow started to creep down the stairs; before she’d left the relative safety of Buffy’s bedroom she’d felt all brave and full of determination. Now she felt like she really needed to go to the bathroom. Trying to stifle these feelings of fear and trepidation, she continued down the stairs until she was standing in the hall.

Looking to her left and then to her right, Willow saw that Buffy’s house had indeed been reduced to a war-zone like she’d seen on the TV news. Buffy would never be able to clean this up, she’d have to move back on post after all. The thought made Willow laugh, she clamped her hand over her mouth to stop her near hysterical laughter from escaping and getting her shot. Okay, Willow took a deep breath, time to find Faith.

0=0=0=0

Sitting on the floor of the downstairs bathroom, Faith slapped the last full magazine for her shotgun into the weapon. She’d gone through the hundred rounds she normally carried at a prodigious rate now she only had ten rounds left, she clicked the selector to ‘single shot’. Pulling her M-23 pistol, she checked that it was loaded and ready to go. However she only had three magazines for the pistol, thirty-six rounds in all. Her best bet was to take a weapon off one of the ninjas before she ran out of shells for her shotgun.

Getting quietly to her feet, Faith stepped over to the half open door and stared out into the hall. Nothing moved, but she could hear footsteps sneaking about from the direction of the kitchen. Slipping through the open door, Faith made her way swiftly and silently to the kitchen. The door had been blown off its hinges earlier in the battle; once again Faith wondered where the cops and the army were, surely they should be here by now? Adjusting her grip on her shotgun, she took a deep breath before bursting into the kitchen. Her eyes registered the first ninja as he crouched warily in the centre of the kitchen. Pulling her trigger, Faith felt the AS2 buck in her hands as the weapon boomed and its buckshot blasted the guy off his feet and hurled him across the room. Altering her point of aim a little Faith gunned down a second ninja as he came through the door.

This man fell over backwards leaving the doorway clear for the third ninja to stick his Uzi SMG around the door frame and fire a long burst into the room. Faith returned fire her shotgun blasts biting great chunks out of the wall. The ninja stopped firing as did Faith, was the guy by the door dead? If he was she could go in grab the other guy’s Uzi and ammo and high-tail it out of here. If he wasn’t she could end up dead and that wouldn’t help anyone but the ninjas. Deciding to fire a couple of rounds into where she was sure the ninja was hiding, Faith froze in place as she heard the *clink, hiss, clunk* of someone pulling the pin from a grenade and throwing it into the room to land in the middle of the kitchen.

“CRAP!” Faith hurled herself backwards as the grenade rolled across the floor towards her.

 ***BANG!*** Went the grenade as it exploded and sprayed the room with razor sharp shrapnel.

Flying through the air, Faith eventually landed on her back in the little corridor between the kitchen and the dinning room. She lay there stunned; her ears were ringing and she was unable to get up; she could feel something wet trickling down her face and she really hoped it was water. Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it of the fog that clouded her mind, Faith looked up and through blurred eyes saw the black clad figure of a ninja coming through the ruined door towards her. For a second Faith wondered where her shotgun was, realising she must have dropped it, her hand went for her sidearm. In an instant the pistol was up and centred on the guy’s chest. Pulling the trigger twice she saw the big .45 rounds hit the ninja and knock him off his feet. Her head clearer now, Faith pushed herself up and started to crawl towards the downed man. So intent was she on taking the man’s Uzi that Faith didn’t hear the second grenade until it landed on the floor behind her.

“OH SHIT!” 

Faith felt herself being hurled into the wall as sharp pieces of metal punched into her body. Slammed against the wall she slid to the floor leaving a wide smear of blood behind her. Forcing her eyes to stay open just a little longer, Faith managed to lift her pistol and pull the trigger as the grenadier burst through the doorway. The man jerked and fell like a puppet that’d had its strings cut. Watching the man fall she wondered if she’d made the right choices in her life and wished she had some morphine. Shaking her head once more, this time to rid it of these weird thoughts that seemed to be filling her mind, Faith was just in time to hear another grenade land.

“Oh fuck…” she sighed as the grenade exploded and darkness closed in around her.

0=0=0=0

Hiding under what remained of the dinning room table, Willow was aware of the smell of gunsmoke in the air, burning wood and smouldering electricity cables and…oh yes the roar of gunfire from the kitchen, obviously Faith was still kicking ass and taking names. Yep, she told herself, Buffy was going to be _really_ pissed when she saw what the ninjas had done to her house. It was as these thoughts passed through her mind that Willow started to sense something else, something magical…but not in a good Walt Disney cartoon sorta way.

Sticking her head up out of cover a little like a Meerkat watching for danger, Willow felt the magical energy crackle against her skin and make her hair stand up on end. Turning around slowly looking for the source of all this energy, Willow hardly noticed the sound of a grenade going off from the direction of the kitchen. There hanging in the air in the middle of the dinning room was a little circle of black surrounded by blue flames. Someone, Willow told herself, was trying to open a magic portal, no doubt to allow reinforcements to appear inside the house. This, Willow told herself, was something she could deal with.

Getting to her feet, Willow watched as the portal grew rapidly larger, three feet, four feet, five feet and she could just see movement in the blackness within the circle of flame. A terrific bang came from behind her and she stumbled forward as the first of the black ninjas stepped from the now fully opened portal and pointed his weapon at her.

Feeling the magic fill her body, Willow lifted her hand and sent a blast of pure magical energy towards the man with the gun and the portal. The ninja screamed horribly as his body was ripped apart and his blood and flesh splattered across the floor, walls, ceiling and Willow. Hardly slowed by the body of the ninja the near solid blast of magical energy hit the portal. Almost at once the blue flames turned to smoky orange and began to flicker. Even as Willow vaguely registered the sounds of gunfire and explosions behind her, the portal started to warp and twist in on itself. The sound of agonised screams came from inside the portal for a moment and then the portal closed with all the finality of a tomb door slamming shut.

0=0=0=0

Sitting in the rear seat of the Land Rover Discovery that she used as a command vehicle, Amy watched the images in her screeing bowl. Things were not going as well as she’d hoped, in fact things were going _really_ badly. It appeared that Buffy had a slayer who wasn’t worried about using guns and killing people, two weaknesses of the slayers that she’d hoped to exploit. Casualties in the ranks of the Knights and their Squires had been horrific. The portal that was supposed to let her Kill Team and Medical Team in behind the defenders had been closed killing the men who were in the portal on route to the house. The time had come to call an end to the mission. It was a ‘fail’ and there was no point pouring in more good men only to have them killed. Amy was a realist she’d have to chalk this one up to experience and give the client back his money. Okay, she shrugged, so she wouldn’t be going to Hawaii this year.

“Abort the mission,” Amy told the Knight sitting in the front passenger seat, “tell everyone to fall back to the primary extraction point and then return to base.”

Amy was just about to tell her driver to get them out of Grandview when she happened to look out of the window to her left. Smiling Amy shook her head, men were just so predictable. Oh well, she thought, perhaps the day could end on a high note.

0=0=0=0

Sheltering in the shadow of a house, Xander listened as the sound of gunfire slowly faded to nothing. Unable to stop himself he found himself giggling at the thought that in a few more minutes’ time Buffy Summers would be his. He clutched the heavy, old magic book to his chest and stroked its smooth leather cover imagining all the time that it was Buffy’s skin and very soon he’d be caressing her soft, warm flesh for real.

The book spoke to him, it told him that in just a few more minutes he’d have everything he desired and he’d be holding Buffy in his arms. Very soon he’d run up to Buffy’s house, he’d act like he’d narrowly escaped death at the hands of the black ninjas. He’d find Buffy and save her life, he’d sit by her hospital bed and comfort her as she realised that everyone she’d ever loved (except him of course) had been killed, murdered by Amy’s black assassins. Once Buffy realised that Xander was her last true friend and it had been him who’d saved her and comforted her when she’d most needed it. Buffy would fall into his arms and he would get what he’d always wanted from the day he’d first seen her and they’d live happily ever after.

0=0=0=0

Climbing out of the Land Rover, Amy grabbed her shoulder bag and checked the contents.

“Hey, guys,” she called to her knights, “just seen an old friend, I won’t be long.”

Walking over towards Harris, Amy wondered why the loser was here. But, of course, Amy smiled at her own foolishness; Harris was here to gloat as she always knew he would be.

“Amy!?” Xander turned sharply to confront the witch as she drew closer, “Is it over? How soon should I wait before I go rescue Buffy?”

Noticing how Harris stood hunched up around the big, old book he was carrying, Amy scowled. What was wrong with this picture? Because some thing was really wrong here. Okay, Xander Harris was a loser, she’d realised that shortly after he’d had her cast that love spell. But now he reminded her of that character out of Lord of the Rings, the one always going on about ‘his precious’, some thing was way off here.

Reaching out with her magics she felt the malicious presence that was the book, it was powerful but not as powerful as she was. Lashing out at the book with her mind she felt it recoil away from her like a dog that had been hit over the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

“What are you doing!?” Xander hugged his book more tightly and Amy felt the book try to increase its hold over Xander.

The sight of Amy’s knights starting to pull back from Buffy’s house caught Xander’s attention, he pointed to the running men as they took their wounded and as many of their dead with them as they could. 

“Is everyone dead? Is Buffy alone now?” Xander looked excitedly at Amy waiting for her answer, “Is she mine now?” he held the book out to Amy, “If she is you can have this book as a bonus…it’s full of magic stuff.”

Obviously the book recognised Amy as a more powerful being and wanted to transfer itself to her care.

“Erm,” Amy’s hand went into her bag and felt the cold metal and plastic of the machine pistol as her fingers caressed it lovingly, “not so much.”

“What!?” Xander yelled, “What do you mean, ‘not so much’? I paid you good money for them all to die so no one could stop me from having her!”

“Let me get this straight,” Amy replied calmly, “you hired me and my guys to do all this just so you could screw Buffy’s ass off, right?”

“Well,” Xander giggled insanely, “I wouldn’t have put it exactly like that, but yeah I did.”

“That’s cool,” Amy hauled the machine pistol from out of her bag and pointed it at Xander’s head.

“W-WHAT THE HELL!” Xander cried as she stepped away from the witch with the gun.

Amy didn’t explain she just fired. Watching as the muzzle flash reached for Harris she saw her rounds hit his chest and work their way up to his head. Blown off his feet, Xander flew through the air as the book went in the opposite direction well out of harm’s way. As Xander’s lifeless body fell to the ground, Amy lowered her weapon before walking over to where he lay. Looking down at his corpse she shrugged. If Xander had really wanted to bring the slayer down he’d have just told the Feds all about what Buffy and her friends had done in Sunnydale.

“And that’s what you get for trying to blackmail me in school,” Amy told the dead man.

Turning away from Harris’ body, Amy walked over to where the book lay in the grass, she bent down and picked up the big leather bound book, she could feel the magic it contained even through the thick cover. It pricked at her mind like sharp needles trying to find a way passed her defences. Batting the book’s attempt to control her to one side she smiled serenely.

“Now what have we got here?” she asked herself as she turned away from the body and walked swiftly back to her vehicle; climbing inside she pulled the door closed, “Drive,” she ordered her driver.

Okay, this mission was a failure and casualties had been heavy. But the knights would recover and there would be other missions and now she had this really interesting book. Opening the cover, as the Range Rover sped through the streets of Grandview, Amy studied the writing on the first page. Recognising it as classical Greek, she’d have to get her interpreters to translate it. The few words she could pick out (if you were a witch you had to have a nodding acquaintance with several ancient languages), she could tell this was a book that held real power, Harris probably hadn’t realised how much. Which was probably why he’d let it take him over like that. 

The book's power wasn’t directed, the book itself wasn’t sentient it just wanted to give its power to whoever held it. This was fine by Amy, but unlike Harris she would be the book's master or maybe even its mistress, Closing the cover Amy sat back in her seat, perhaps she wouldn’t retire just yet; maybe she’d just take a holiday in Hawaii while the knights recovered their strength. At least now, with Harris dead, she wouldn’t have to give back those diamonds.

0=0=0=0

Pushing herself to her feet Willow stumbled as she tried to take a step. Her hand went to her head in an attempt to stop it spinning. Feeling something wet on her face, she pulled back her hand and looked at it; it was covered in blood.

“Oh goddess,” Willow moaned as she leant against the wall to stop herself from falling down.

Although her ears felt like they’d been stuffed full of cotton wool so she couldn’t hear the bells that were sounding in her head, Willow couldn’t hear any gunfire or explosions either. Careful not to look too closely at the bits of body that lay everywhere she walked unsteadily to the window. The sight of police cars, army jeeps and ambulances greeted her eyes as they pulled up in the street outside. Almost immediately soldiers and policemen jumped from their vehicles and started running towards the house.

“Better late than never,” Willow muttered despondently as the remains of the front door was kicked open and heavy boots sounded on the floor of the hall.

“U-S-A FRIENDLIES!” Willow cried loudly as she put her hands up; Faith had told her she should do this if she was ever in a similar situation, it was only then that she realised Faith hadn’t reappeared.

Surely if all the ninja guys were gone or dead Faith would be with here by now. A soldier burst into the room and pointed his rifle at her. He seemed to recognise her and lowered his weapon slightly.

“Ms Rosenberg?” he called as he came towards her, “Are you alright?”

“Y-yes,” Willow nodded, “Find Faith…I mean Chief Lehane she’s down here somewhere and probably wounded.”

“Oh it!” The soldier turned away and grabbed a couple of his buddies to help him look for Faith.

Slowly Willow sank to the floor, she must have blacked out for a second or two because the next thing she remembered was seeing a paramedic kneeling beside her, it was the same guy who’d checked out Buffy when the first ninjas had tried to kidnap them.

“Hi Miss Rosenberg,” Jim Clancy smiled as he shone a light in Willow’s eyes, “how are you feeling?”

“Oh…” Willow smiled weakly, “…just dandy y’know…I get blown up almost everyday…where’s Faith?”

“They’re looking for her,” Jim replied as he started to wipe blood off Willow’s face as he looked for wounds.

“HEY!” Willow called as she saw a couple of soldiers start to work their way up the stairs, “Mrs Finn’s in the master bedroom with Mr Giles, you better be careful coz they’re both armed…”

“Roger that Ma’am,” called one of the soldiers.

Willow turned her attention back to Jim, “Where’s Faith? Have they found her yet?”

0=0=0=0


	13. Chapter 13

13.

**The Rosenberg-Lehane Residence, Grandview, July 2009.**

Closing the front door behind her, Willow sighed wearily as she leaned against the wall and took a moment to count her blessings. Having just come from Grandview Mercy Hospital where she’d been visiting Faith, she was looking forward to her lover coming home in a couple of day’s time. Faith’s recovery from the injuries she’d received during the final ninja attack was going well. Of course what with Faith being a slayer her wounds would always heal, but Willow was always relieved when she could actually see the evidence.

The ninjas who’d attacked Buffy’s house had been beaten off and no one had died except the bad guys…mostly. Her face fell as she tried once again to work out what Xander had been doing right there, right at that moment. He’d been shot at close range probably by someone using a submachine-gun, or so the coroner had claimed. They’d buried him (Xander not the coroner) a week later, everyone, even Giles, had cried. It was at Xander’s funeral that Willow had finally decided to go through with the spell to change history. Maybe, she hoped she could change things so Xander hadn’t been killed. The death of her friend weighed heavily on her mind; the chance to get him back again was just too tempting whatever she might have said to Buffy.

But on the plus side, Riley had come home safe and sound from China and only needed a new artificial leg. He’d been just in time to be with Buffy when she gave birth to ‘Little Faith’. Buffy had been so grateful to Faith for saving them all that she’d named her daughter after her. So now there was a new little Scooby, Faith Finn. Willow was only slightly put out that Buffy hadn’t named her daughter after her. However, Buffy had promised that next time she had a daughter she’d be called ‘Willow’; Willow didn’t plan on going all ‘evil fairy Godmother’ just because her bestfriend had decided to call her child after her girlfriend.

So, things were good and Willow told herself that once she’d cast the spell to change the past life would be even better. Moving quickly through the little house she shared with Faith, she found herself in her workshop. Opening a closet door, she checked all the ingredients she’d need to cast the spell that would change the past forever. Once the spell was in place, Faith would have her own past back, a better past than her real one. This one would have loving parents who’d welcome her home with open arms. 

Okay, the bit about Faith’s parents had had consequences but not too many people would die and on the plus side there would be a few less terrorists in the world. Smiling at how good life was going to be for the vast majority of the world, Willow laughed, it was all going to be so good. Tonight after she’d eaten she’d cast the spell and everything would be better than it ever had been.

0=0=0=0

**RESET.**

**The house that had once belonged to Xander Harris, Cleveland, May 2009.**

He’d make her pay…in fact he’d make them all pay everyone that had ever screwed with his life would regret it. Tossing the screwed up legal paper to one side, Xander stumbled into his old bedroom and went over to one of the built in closets. Pulling aside the carpet, he knelt down and opened the secret compartment in the floor and searched for something he’d almost forgotten that he’d acquired. Reaching inside he brought forth a large leather bound tome and a small leather pouch. These were both souvenirs from his time in Africa…they’d all needed him then, so why didn’t they need him now?

Looking at the book, Xander felt uneasy about even touching it, he’d always meant to give it to Giles or Willow but he’d never quite got ‘round to it. It held powerful magics and magic had always come around to bite him on the butt. Plus it was in some foreign language that he couldn’t read; he also suspected that it was in some sort of code. He replaced the book into its hiding place, let whoever lived in his house after he’d gone deal with it or not.

The pouch, however, he would keep. Emptying the pouch’s contents into his hand, Xander smiled. The rough, pebble-like stones were actually worth hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of dollars. They were so-called Blood Diamonds that had fallen into his hands during his time in Africa. Unfortunately no reputable dealer would touch them so he’d never been able to convert them into cash. 

However, he knew a few disreputable dealers who’d give him fifty cents on the dollar for the stones. Even at half their value the stones would bring in more than enough money for him to hire a good lawyer. Sitting in the semi-dark holding the diamonds in the palm of his hand Xander laughed. Very soon he’d have his revenge on the pack of women that had ruined his life. At first he’d thought about having them all killed, but then he’d remembered something that Giles had once said about the old Watcher’s Council. Something about how they could destroy your life with a stroke of a pen. This was going to be so much more satisfying than killing them, what he’d got planned was like the ‘Revenge that Kept on Giving’. For a moment Xander sat and imagined Buffy and the rest as their lives fell apart around them and the best thing was that not even Willow with all her witchy power would be able to stop it.

Pouring the stones back into their pouch, Xander climbed to his feet. The plan was simple; all he had to do was go to the motel near the highway. He’d clean up his act, he’d even stop drinking and cut his hair; he needed to look like a credible witness not a drunk. Next he’d contact some of those dealers who weren’t so fussy about the origin of uncut diamonds. Once he’d got some cash he’d hire a lawyer before marching on down to the Federal Building. There in exchange for immunity from prosecution and maybe a new life, he’d tell the authorities ever dirty little secret that Buffy and Willow and all the others had been hiding for all these years.

Chuckling to himself, Xander stuffed the diamonds in with his clothes and swung his backpack up onto his shoulder. After taking one last look around the place he’d planned on spending the rest of his life, he headed towards the door. As he walked out of the house he’d started to whistle a jaunty tune and never once looked back.

0=0=0=0

**The road between Fort Drum and Grandview, New York State, June 2009.**

“Hey,” Willow glanced in the rear view mirror to see two black vans come up behind them, “get close why don’t ya?”

She was driving Buffy home from Fort Drum and she’d noticed the two vans tailing them from the time that she’d stopped to let Buffy use the bathroom at a gas station.

“What’s wrong?” Buffy twisted in her seat to see the vans right on their tail; the lead vehicle flashed its headlights at them.

“Okay, okay,” Willow muttered slightly annoyed at the other driver’s antics, “the road’s clear buster, if you wanna overtake, overtake already!”

Slowing down Willow pulled over to let the van go by; it roared passed them only to come to a screeching halt a few dozen yards ahead of them. Standing on the brakes, Willow brought the SUV to a halt before they hit the now stationary van.

“What the hell!” Willow cried, she already had her door open.

Just as Willow was stepping out onto the verge the van’s rear doors burst open as half a dozen figures dressed completely in black leapt from the van and started to run towards the SUV.

“FBI! FBI!” cried the lead figure as the black clad commandos spread out to surround Buffy’s SUV, “DON’T MOVE AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!”

More commandos appeared from the other van which was now blocking off any hope of escape. Not knowing what was going on, Willow lay down on the road way as she’d been ordered to by the gun toting agents who now completely surrounded the SUV. A couple of the Swat team went around to Buffy’s side of the van and firmly ordered her out of her seat. As Buffy was so pregnant they didn’t make her lie on the road, but they did push her face first against the side of the car and handcuffed her hands behind her back.

“Hey guys!” Willow cried as the handcuffs were put around her own wrists, “What’s going on we’re on your side y’know?”

The agents didn’t seem to care.

0=0=0=0

**Colonel Riley Finn’s office, Fort Drum.**

Shuffling away some papers, Riley cleared his desk. This mission to China had blown up unexpectedly as had the request by the Chinese authorities that a senior American officer should accompany the Strike Force that would be working with the Chinese Army. On the plus side it meant that he could get some time in on the ranges instead of being stuck behind his desk all day. Also the chance to play soldier again would be nice, what with losing his leg he didn’t get the opportunity that often these days. The mission shouldn’t take more than five perhaps six days then he’d be back in plenty of time for the birth of his and Buffy’s first child. Riley smiled; he was really looking forward to being a ‘dad’. 

There was a sharp knock at the door which intruded into his thoughts on parenthood.

“Come!” Riley called as he cleared the last secret file into his desk and locked the drawer.

The office door opened and Riley looked up to see an MP Captain followed by two more MPs enter his office.

“Colonel Finn,” it wasn’t a question it was more like a statement; Riley noticed that the Captain hadn’t saluted.

“Yes Captain, what can I do for you?” Riley asked as he sat back in his chair and regarded the officer with a quizzical eye.

“I’m sorry Sir,” the Captain didn’t sound sorry at all, “but I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.”

“What?” Riley started to reach for his phone.

“That won’t do any good, Sir,” the Captain informed him, “the lines been cut.”

“Will you tell me what the hells going on?” Riley demanded angrily as he stood up.

“Please Sir don’t make this any more difficult than it is,” the Captain pleaded, “I’ve been ordered to escort you to the Provost Marshall’s office where you’re questions will be answered. I’d rather not have to have my men to restrain you…”

0=0=0=0

**Brigadier General Hollis Mann’s office, Fort Drum, August 2009.**

“Miss Lehane to see you General.”

“Thank-you, John,” General Hollis Mann looked up at her clerk and wondered if she’d ever get used to being called ‘General’, “show her in, please.”

Waiting behind her desk, Hollis watched as Faith Lehane walked into her office. The young woman was dressed in civilian clothing and Hollis noted how uncomfortable she looked as she fought not to salute.

“Nice to see you again, Faith,” Hollis stood up and held out her hand, Faith shook it hesitantly, Hollis gestured to the chair in front of her desk, “Please sit.”

After spending a minute or two making small talk, Hollis got to the meat of what she wanted to say.

“Faith…” she began, “…I’ve called you here today to explain the findings of the Court of Enquiry.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Faith nodded as she tried not to let her emotions show; the last month had been something like a roller-coaster from hell and she just wanted the ride to be over.

“First of all, let me be the first to congratulate you,” Hollis opened one of her desk drawers and placed a holstered pistol and a badge on her desk in front of Faith, “Special Agent Lehane you’ve been completely exonerated and pardoned for any crimes that you may have committed while you were under the influence of Professor Walsh and the Initiative. The Court felt that you had been programmed to obey the orders given you and you didn’t have any free will until after you’d woken up from your coma.”

Hollis smiled at the relieved look on Faith’s face.

“Once you woke up, you have always acted in an exemplary and honourable manner,” Hollis explained, “as your actions while in the army show… By the way,” she grinned, “you’ve been reinstated into the army with your old rank and seniority plus none of this will appear in your records. In fact the Court of Enquiry has added a letter of commendation to your file.” Hollis paused for a moment, “The Court has also asked me to express their sincere thanks for everything you’ve done for your country over the last ten years and their heart felt apologies for the wrong done to you by an agency of this nation.”

“Thank-you, General,” Just for a moment Faith looked away and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand; it was all over perhaps now she could get her life back on track.

Pretending not to notice Faith’s tears, Hollis shuffled some papers on her desk while Faith got a grip on herself.

“I’ll have a full copy of the Court’s findings sent to you in a day or so,” Hollis continued once Faith had calmed herself, “you can read it…or not…at your leisure.”

“Excuse me General, but what happened to the others?” Faith asked.

“Well,” Hollis sighed, “General Brittles and Colonel Finn have both ‘retired’. I always wanted a Star,” Hollis confessed, “but I didn’t want to get it like this. Anyway, General Brittles has decided to live quietly somewhere while Colonel Finn has gone back to live on his parent’s farm.” Hollis glanced out of her window before taking a deep breath and continuing, “They both knew what had been done to you Faith, Riley Finn had even taken part in some of it, but they kept it hidden from you and the army.” Hollis shook her head sadly, “Of course Buffy Finn will have to do some prison time, after all she chose a vampire over a human and she did try to murder you in your own home.”

“How much…” Faith asked quietly, “…time I mean?”

“A year, minimum security,” Hollis explained, “the Court is even letting her keep her son with her. The court felt there were mitigating circumstances and her actions saving the world helped keep her out of prison for longer.”

“Good…” Faith nodded, “…she was only doing what she thought was best I suppose, but…”

“But she did try to murder you, Faith,” Hollis reminded her, “and there were other actions she’d taken that the Court felt warranted at least a little time behind bars.”

“Yes General…” Faith nodded, “…erm what about…?”

“Miss Rosenberg…” Hollis nodded her head slowly, “…of course she won’t be working for ASID any more. In fact she won’t be working for any Federal agency ever…I’ve no idea what her plans are, she may even leave the country. The Court felt that she did what she did with the best of intentions and was heavily under the influence of Summers and Mr Giles, Buffy’s watcher.” Hollis hesitated again, “This is hard for me to say and I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, but the Army would prefer it if you didn’t renew your relationship with Miss Rosenberg while you’re in the service.”

“No need to worry there, General,” the bitterness in Faith’s voice was clear for all to hear, “I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.”

“Good…” Hollis nodded, “…now onto other matters; the New Watcher’s Council have been told that they are no longer welcome in the United States…”

“What about the slayers?” whatever Faith might feel about Buffy Summers, Rupert Giles and Willow Rosenberg, she knew that the other slayers were innocent in all this.

“Each girl will be given a choice when she comes into her powers,” Hollis started to explain, “first they’ll have to register with the Federal Authorities. Once they’ve reached eighteen they can either work for the new Federal Task Force set up to deal with the netherworld threat, or join us here at ASID and the 613th or…”

“Or?” Faith prompted.

“We’ve developed a drug that will effectively strip a girl of her powers,” Hollis saw the look of horror on Faith’s face, “Its quite harmless and the girls get to live a normal life for the price of a monthly injection.” Hollis thought she better put a positive spin on this, “So far about eighty-five percent of the slayers have opted to join either the Task Force or us here…very soon we’re going to have a lot of young slayers who need to be turned into soldiers, I’m hoping you’ll be able to help us with that…”

“Yes Ma’am,” Faith replied non-committally.

“Whatever,” Hollis knew when not to push, Faith would make up her own mind in her own time and she was confident that she’d make the right choice, the Army choice. “I’m sure you’ve got too much on your mind to worry about that,” Hollis smiled, “I’m sending you on leave for a couple of weeks, take some time to think things over and then when you come back, come and see me and tell me what you’ve decided.”

“Yes General,” Faith started to get up, to tell the truth she’d be grateful for a little time to get things straight in her mind.

“Before you go, Chief,” Hollis pushed a slim, light tan folder across her desk towards Faith, “You might want to take that file and read it, I think you’ll find the contents interesting.”

“Thank-you General,” Faith took the file before shaking hands with her new commanding officer and heading on out to the parking lot.

Two weeks, Faith climbed into her old jeep, two weeks to come to terms with everything that had happened in the last couple of months. Two weeks to deal with the betrayal she felt and decide what she was going to do with her life. Sitting behind her steering wheel, Faith flicked slowly through the file the General had given her. Her fingers froze as they touched a photograph of a couple and their teenage daughter, Faith gasped.

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

_The long and winding road  
That leads to your door   
Will never disappear   
I've seen that road before   
It always leads me here   
Leads me to your door._

The Long and Winding Road: Lennon/McCartney.

**A quiet suburban street in Washington DC, August, 2009.**

Bringing the hire car to a full stop against the curb, Faith switched off the engine and looked up at the house. It was a nice, roses round the door, post-colonial style kinda place, the kind of place that Willow and herself might have lived in if things had turned out…well, if they’d turned out better. It was the sort of house that Buffy _had_ lived in until she’d been arrested and her life had been destroyed.

“Sure this is the right place?” Faith asked herself; she nodded and smiled as she checked the address in the file General Mann had given her. For a guy who was supposed to be the Director of a super-secret, government, spy agency, it'd been real easy to find out where he lived. Faith sighed and shrugged her shoulders, “Looks like ASID have their ways of finding out most anything they want. Okay,” she told herself, “can’t sit out here all day…” a thought suddenly hit her, “…what if they don’t want anything to do with me?” 

Getting out of the car, Faith straightened her uniform. First brushing a strand of hair from her shoulder, she then straightened the silly little tie thing that all female soldiers had to wear with their uniforms. Next she let her hand drift down to touch the medal ribbons pinned to her blouse. She remembered how Willow’s eyes had always gone misty when she’d looked at her Purple Heart ribbon and the little cluster of stars that adorned it. Finally, she took a deep breath before checking that her beret was on straight.

Turning away from the car, Faith headed towards the house, she walked up the long garden path to the front door. Stepping up onto the porch, she pressed the doorbell. Hearing the bell sounding deep within the house, Faith waited and wondered if the next five minutes would go as she’d always hoped they would. Coming back to the present she was just in time to hear footsteps before the door was opened.

“Good afternoon Ma’am,” Faith began politely and tried not to sound too much like a door-to-door salesman, “Am I talking to Helen Tasker?”

“Y-yes you are,” Helen Tasker frowned, “what can I do for you Miss…” Helen glanced at the name tag on Faith’s blouse, “…Lehane?”

“Mom?” Faith asked uncertainly.

“Oh-my-god!” Helen gasped, “Dana!?”

0=0=0=0

The memories had started to come back on the same day that Willow had been arrested. Over the next couple of weeks, Faith had learnt a little more about herself everyday. It had been so confusing for her as she’d been trying to give evidence at the Court of Enquiry at the same time as she’d been learning about who she really was.

Back in 1994 Dana Tasker was a normal Junior High School girl who’s father just happened to be a secret agent working for the highly classified ‘Omega Sector’. It was in this year that Dana had been kidnapped and held hostage by Salim Abu Aziz during his attempt to detonate a nuclear warhead in Miami. After she’d helped her father prevent Abu Aziz’s plot, Dana’s family had become a lot closer. Faith didn’t know why Professor Walsh chose her to be her first guinea-pig, perhaps it had been because of her actions during the Aziz episode. Whatever the reason, a couple of days after Dana had started High School the Initiative had snatched her off the street. At first Dana didn’t know whether she’d been taken by terrorists or some pervert. However, when she got to Walsh’s secret laboratory she soon discovered that it was something so much worse.

0=0=0=0

Claiming that she had no real memories of what had been done to her over those first weeks and months Faith tried to explain to her parents what had happened. The truth was that Faith had some very clear memories of what Walsh and her fellow scientists had done to her. Faith remembered waking up each morning and finding that she was a little less Dana Tasker and a little more Faith Lehane. Who Faith Lehane was or had been Dana-Faith didn’t know. Had she been a real girl or was she someone that Walsh and her people had made up? Whatever the truth, Dana Tasker eventually disappeared and she became Faith Lehane.

Professor Walsh hadn’t stopped at changing Dana into Faith; she’d changed her body too. Faith clearly remembered the agony as her body was twisted into what Walsh wanted. This was something else that Faith was never going to tell her parents about, perhaps one day she’d tell her ‘shrink’, but her parents would never find out what had been done to their little girl not if Faith had any say in the matter.

Once Walsh had been satisfied with her work, the entire Initiative operation had been moved to Sunnydale where the new Faith Lehane had been given her first proper mission. By 1998 the existence of The Slayer was well known to the ‘Initiative’ and Walsh wanted to test her new creation against Buffy Summers. So it was that Faith was ordered to infiltrate Buffy’s group of friends and gain their confidence before engineering a confrontation between herself and Buffy.

Things had almost worked out for Walsh, but when the Mayor’s plans had come to light and it was realised how dangerous his Ascension would be, it was decided that Faith should appear to swap sides and join the Mayor’s team. Originally the plan was for Faith to kill the Mayor. Unfortunately for Walsh the Mayor’s apparent love for Faith had affected her programming and she started to work more for the Mayor and less for the Initiative.

Eventually the trail of events that would lead to the show down between Buffy and Faith unfolded and Walsh got her answer. Buffy Summers was in some small way superior or at least luckier that her own creation. Faith was stabbed and then fell from the balcony of her apartment to land in the back of the truck and eventually lie in a coma for eight months. During this time Walsh lost interest in her purely human experiments and started to work on building a human/demon hybrid.

Of course the most ironic thing of all was that the entire reason for Buffy coming to kill Faith was built on a fallacy. Buffy had come to kill Faith because she needed the blood of a slayer to cure Angel. But Faith wasn’t a slayer and her blood would have been useless to Buffy and Angel.

“…and then I woke up,” Faith explained to her parents as they sat on either side of her, each holding one of her hands, “A couple of weeks later I went to LA, did some stuff there…” this was another thing she’d never tell her parents; the entire stripper/dancer thing would go with her to the grave, “…then I joined the army and here I am.”

“And here you are?” Helen Tasker wiped at her eyes with a tissue, she forced a little lightness into her voice, “Ten years and all those medals…” Helen looked at the rows of ribbons on her daughter’s blouse and almost burst into tears again at the sight of the cluster of stars on Faith’s Purple Heart ribbon. So many medals, she thought, and so many wounds.

“Hey, Mom,” Faith squeezed her mothers hand gently, “its what I do…it’s what I need to do.”

“So,” this was her father, Harry Tasker speaking, “you’re going to stay in the army?”

“For now,” Faith nodded, “but…”

“But?” her father prompted.

“But…” Faith sighed heavily, “…almost everyone knew all this stuff about me and never said anything, I don’t know who to trust or what to do.”

“You know you’ve always got us whatever you decide,” Helen told her daughter, “You know we never stopped looking for you all these years, I always hoped I’d see your face in the crowd one day and…”

“What your mother is trying to say is we never gave up hope,” Harry continued to speak when his wife couldn’t, “to be honest I’m amazed that we never got even a hint of what had happened to you.”

“Don’t sweat it, Dad,” Faith smiled, “but I’m a little pissed ya didn’t see my picture in the newspaper. I made it into the Boston Globe a couple of times…y’know local girl makes good, that sorta thing?”

“Sorry honey,” Harry shrugged his wide shoulders, “what can I say?”

“Like I say,” Faith nudged her father with her shoulder, “these Initiative people were seriously undercover, I mean they were blacker than black. A lot of the guys working for them didn’t know the full story of what was going on. That Walsh bitch was seriously crazy, a real Dr Frankenstein.”

“You must stay here tonight,” Helen announced, she glanced out of the window to see it was getting dark, “we’ll go out for dinner so we can show off our brave soldier-daughter then you must sleep here tonight…we kept your room just like you left it.”

“You did!?” Faith asked in panic.

“Well, no actually,” Helen admitted, “I had to tidy up in there or it would have become a serious health hazard, but its mostly like you left it and I’d like to talk to you about the packet of condoms I found in your dresser.”

“MOM!?” Faith cried in embarrassment, before adding, “Hey at least I was using condoms…”

To be honest Faith couldn’t remember her boyfriend’s name from back then; whatever, she shrugged, he was probably long gone by now and hey, she preferred girls these days.

“Okay, I’m kidding,” Helen admitted, “look we’ll get freshened up while,” she turned to her husband, “Harry, you book us table somewhere nice.”

Faith followed her mother out of the living room and upstairs where they stopped off at Faith’s old room.

See,” her mother said with a smile, “just as you left it…only cleaner.”

“Can I have a moment?” Faith asked as she stepped into the room.

“Sure,” Helen stepped back and disappeared from Faith’s view.

Looking around the room, Faith’s memories of Dana Tasker came back to her. Shaking her head, Faith laughed softly, she’d been such a little bitch back then, a typical teenager in fact. Faith knew she could never be that girl again; Dana Tasker had died twelve years ago, she was Faith Lehane now. Taking one last look at the faded posters on the walls, she turned away to seek out her mother. Walking along the corridor towards her parent’s room Faith could hear her mother sobbing quietly as she sat at her dressing table.

“Oh there you are dear,” looking up Helen caught Faith’s reflection in her mirror.

“Mom?” Faith looked at her mother sadly; she hoped she wasn’t going to cause her mother more pain, “You know that girl?” Faith gestured to her old room, “Dana is dead, I’m Faith now, it’s who I am, I can’t be her again…”

“I know sweetie,” Helen turned to face her daughter, “I’m just glad that I’ve got something of my little girl back again, I’m not going to try and change you, not now, not ever…”

0=0=0=0

_All that is now  
All that is gone   
All that's to come   
And everything under the sun is in tune   
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon._

Eclipse; Pink Floyd.

**Giles’ Flat, Canary Wharf, London, August 2009.**

“See ya Mr G!” Rebecca called as she headed for the door.

“Yes,” Giles called back, “have a nice evening and thank-you.”

“No problem,” the door closed on Rebecca’s words and Giles was alone with Olivia at last.

“Nice girl,” Olivia noted as she came to stand next to Giles while he looked out of his picture window at what had once been part of London’s docks.

“Yes she is,” Giles replied vaguely, he had things on his mind, “and a very good cook…”

“Do I need to worry?” Olivia asked half seriously.

“What?” Giles looked down at the woman by his side, “Worry? I don’t…Oh! You mean Rebecca? No, she’s just a girl, a very nice, talented girl, but just a girl all the same…”

“A very nice, very talented girl with big boobs who can cook,” Olivia observed, “and she lives in your flat, what woman wouldn’t be worried?”

“I don’t know,” Giles frowned; as far as he was concerned Olivia was the only woman in his life, “are you?”

Olivia looked at Giles long and hard before saying, “No, Rupert, not really.”

“Good,” Giles went back to staring out the window.

“Penny for them,” Olivia asked.

“Oh,” Giles laughed quietly, “its this situation in the States, its got me all distracted. I worry what’ll happen to those poor girls over there.”

“From what I hear,” Olivia rested her head against Giles’ shoulder, “they’ve got a pretty good deal and its not as if they have to work for the US Government forever…what was it? A minimum of three years then out, free and clear?”

“Yes, yes,” Giles agreed with a sigh, “but it was one of the things about the old council that I always agreed with them about…slayers and governments shouldn’t mix…”

“Whatever,” Olivia pulled Giles away from the window and towards the couch, “lets not think about that now. Lets finish this bottle of wine and then we can take advantage of the fact that your slayer won’t be home until tomorrow afternoon…”

0=0=0=0

_I rode down Haley street  
In my 5.0, no   
Got the ragtop down   
So my vegas can blow, yeah   
My wheels are spinning   
My rims are shining   
On the street, yeah   
All you suckers take a look at me, yeah   
Oh, yeah _

_'Cause I'm not a loser  
Not a loser   
I'm not a loser   
It's just the matter of mind over matter._

I’m not a Loser; Nerf Herder.

**Corvallis, Oregon, September, 2009.**

Climbing out of his pick-up truck, with its shinny rims, Xander smiled to himself as he collected his tool box out of the back of the truck. Of course he wasn’t ‘Xander Harris’ anymore and he’d need to start thinking of himself as Jeff Davis from now on. The Feds had moved him to this nice, quiet, university town out in Oregon and set him up as a one man, carpentry contractor. Now he had a life again, he’d given up drinking and started to go to AA meetings. He even had a completely human girlfriend now that he was away from the influence of any Hellmouths. For once in his miserable life he’d done something right and he’d come out on top. No one from his old life would find him here, he was safe from monsters and slayers and witches. 

Hefting his tool box in his hand, Jeff Davis walked up the path to the front door of the house where the lady who’d called him wanted some closets built. Ringing the doorbell he turned to look back at his truck and then up and down the street. Yeah, he told himself, this was the real life.

0=0=0=0

**Willow’s Apartment, New York City, September 2009.**

Sitting in the kitchen-living room of her small New York apartment, Willow stared out the window and tried to work out what had gone wrong. This was worse than when Tara had died; at least then she’d known deep down that Tara was gone, but now… 

One minute everything was fine; better than fine in fact. Buffy was looking forward to having her baby and Willow’s concerns about her relationship with Faith seemed to have vanished. Since their mission in New York earlier in the year Faith had been acting a little coldly towards her and Willow had been worried that Faith might want to break up with her. But then everything seems to change and Faith was back to her old self again.

But then… But then everything had fallen apart so quickly, Willow felt like she was trapped on some evil funfair ride that she couldn’t get off. First the FBI had grabbed Buffy and herself as they’d been driving back to Grandview, then the next thing they’d heard was that General Brittles and Riley had been taken into custody. Next came the so-called Court of Inquiry.

Court of Enquiry, my foot, Willow sulked; it had been more like some ‘Star Chamber’ where every action the Scoobies had taken from Sunnydale to the present day was put under the microscope. The Court was particularly interested in anything to do with their actions towards Faith. Of course they’d all been found guilty of something; Riley and General Brittles were told to resign. Buffy was sent to prison…okay it was only for a year in a minimum security Federal facility (they even allowed Buffy to keep her new baby boy with her) but it was still prison. The army had insisted that Buffy should spend some time behind bars for choosing Angel over Faith and trying to kill her. It was at this point that Willow really understood what Faith had meant when she’d said that the army looked after their own.

And herself? Well, Willow had expected to be sharing a cell with Buffy but The Court had decided that she wasn’t really responsible for her actions. They’d said she’d been heavily under the influence of Giles and Buffy…in fact they’d made it sound like she’d been incapable of making her own decisions, plus there’d been the magic addiction to consider. So, The Court had let her go, but only under some pretty severe restrictions.

They’d found her a job teaching computer science at an inner city school, where the authorities could keep an eye on her, she couldn’t even leave New York City without permission. Plus she had to report in with the new Federal Slayer Task Force every week where her behaviour over the previous seven days would be scrutinized. Although she was still permitted to use magic, she could only use very low power spells and she had to keep a log of any spells that she did cast.

In addition to these restrictions Willow wasn’t permitted any contact with Buffy, Riley, General Brittles or indeed any of her old colleagues at ASID. But most of all she wasn’t to try and contact Faith in anyway what-so-ever. What the consequences of breaking any of these rules would be, Willow hadn’t been told, but she guessed they’d be pretty drastic.

The Court had thrown her one crumb however; they’d told her that if she wanted to leave the United States and join the New Watcher’s Council in England they wouldn’t stand in her way. In fact she’d got the distinct impression that-that was what they’d hoped she’d do. But she’d stubbornly ignored the hints and submitted to their rules and tried to make the best of things.

But it was so hard being cut off from her friends and the people she’d considered her family. Worst of all was not being able to contact Faith; she’d tried whatever The Court might do or say. Perhaps they’d actually expected her to; whatever, they’d either not found out about her attempts or if they had they’d decided not to do anything about it. But Faith had not replied to any of her messages, it was almost as if she’d vanished off the face of the Earth.

Sighing heavily, Willow got up and walked the short distance to her hall closet, opening the door she reached up to the top shelf and brought down the leather bound box that she’d hidden there. Taking the box she sat down on her couch and opened it. There in a nest of red velvet was the .38 revolver that Faith had bought for her; to give her another option than magic, Faith had said when she’d given it to her.

Surprisingly Willow had found she enjoyed target shooting, plus she’d been able to qualify on the ASID ranges which had allowed her to go on missions either by herself or with other agents. Now the revolver was the only thing she had left that had any connection to Faith. Sitting there cradling the gun in her hands, Willow started to tell herself that life without Faith and Buffy and all the rest wasn’t worth living. Was this all she had left to look forward to? A life empty of anything worth while? Could she live with that, knowing that her lover was so close but at the same time so far away?

As the tears started to blur her eyes, Willow opened the little box containing the bullets for her gun and started to place them in the weapon’s cylinder; her hands didn’t even shake…

_…and if you're very lucky  
You'll get your picture in the paper on page three  
Twenty-five words will summarize how you spent your whole damn life  
One day on that page  
Next day into the hamster cage._

_So get in your car and drive real fast,  
Up in the attic with a shotgun blast.  
Take a bath with a clock radio,  
Vodka and valium overdose.  
All the glamour can be yours with a loaded .44,  
Have you ever tried?  
There must be five-thousand ways to die._

5000 Ways to Die; Nerf Herder.

The End.


End file.
